Russian business leaders fight Skype

The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, an association whose membership includes Russia’s most prominent businessmen, has taken aim at Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP),  telephone services such as Skype and ICQ, Gazeta.ru writes today. Cellular operators will rejoice.

The RUIE commission on telecommunications and information technology held a meeting on July 21. According to the organizations website, besides RUIE members, communications experts and executives from cellular communication companies took part in the meeting.

The experts voiced a number of objections to VoIP telephone services. They pointed out that the services are not integrated into the SORM system, which guarantees Russian governmental bodies the ability to monitor calls if needed. Furthermore, they say, the majority of VoIP companies are based in other countries, and Russian business interests need to be protected. Also, the companies do not pay taxes in Russia, and Russian consumers have no legal recourse should disputes with those companies arise.

The experts mentioned as well that VoIP services are significantly cheaper than tradition telephone services and the VoIP market is growing much faster than the traditional market. Senior vice president of Transtelekom Co. Vitaly Kotov predicted that VoIP will account for 40% of Russian telephone traffic by 2012.

The decision was made at the RUIE commission meeting to form a working group to develop proposals for legislative control over VoIP activities in Russia. The commission acknowledged that VoIP technology is accessible in 182 countries and none of them regulate it. Some countries, just as China, Canada and the United States have banned it or imposed severe restrictions on it, however.

An analyst for Gazeta.ru noted that traditional telephone companies have the choice to accommodate VoIP. In Russia, only Megafon, one of the top three cellular service providers, has chosen the second option. It will begin making VoIP technology available to its clients in December.