Oct to Nov 2010 - Teletimes

Latest on VOIP and the need of new law
Riaz Asher
Executive Editor
It looks from the growth of VOIP that
Telecom and IT industry is coming out
from economic crunch. Particularly
VOIP which is mainly based on SIP,
IP-PABX/IP Centrex and managed
services will touch over $22 billion in
next five to six year time. Operators
are already in process to replace their
traditional legacy systems and relaying
on VOIP based services more.
Large enterprises are even working to
rent out their telephony to cut OPEX.
Trend of outsourcing infrastructure is
also on increase due to cost cutting
even with compromise on features
and functionality. This has resulted
in bad quality of network in many
cases. Regulator need to equip with
right tools and resources to ensure
good quality of service in the best
interest of consumers.
Second main matter under active
discussion among world powers is to
grow their rolling power. One of the
main tool in recent and past world is
effective control, monitoring of telephony
traffic. This principal is true
for any type of government globally.
World super powers like US Russia
china etc are looking at new laws requiring
companies to build network
to facilitate governments in this regards.
Most resent development in VOIP
for Law enforcement agencies is to
access encrypted VOIP communications
which include voice and data
for surveillance purposes. Most of
the people rely on Voice over IP to
make calls and transfer of their confidential
business data, whereas government
wants to make sure it’s easy
to monitor those VOIP data to catch
the bad guys, such as grey traffic operators,
terrorist and cyber crime culprits.
There are established laws already
about tapping and warrants, but in
recent years we have experienced
‘warrantless’ wire tapping and the
like so any push to further empower
governments to spy should worry
consumers, businesses and other less
acceptable elements alike.
Last but not least, safety and security
of consumer cannot be compromise
at any cost in present global
situation. This has made task of even
more difficult for law making organizations.
08 www.teletimesinternational.com
15Oct - 14Nov 2010