China Becomes The Latest VoIP-Killer

China's Shanghai Telecom has become the latest telecom worldwide to block VoIP calls, joining an international roster that spans the globe from South America to Europe and Asia. When will these dinosaurs enter the modern age? The Associated Press reports that Shanghai Telecom, with 6.2 million land lines, will use a system developed by U.S.-based Narus Inc. to block VoIP calls.

It's a perfect example of the new China; the blocking is not being done because the government fears VoIP can't be wiretapped. Instead, it's being done for purely economic reasons -- Shanghai Telecom doesn't want to lose out on revenue.

The company isn't alone. In the U.S., telecoms aren't happy about VoIP, but at the moment, they can't legally block it.

But other countries allow VoIP to be blocked, and Narus and others are helping them do it. The IEEE Spectrum magazine, for example, reports that Vodafone has announced a plan to block VoIP calls in Germany, and the French wireless carrier, SFR, has announced it will block VoIP in France.

Narus has said that it has provided a system to block VoIP in Egypt, among other countries. It's also selling a system in Brazil that will allow Brasil Telecom to identify VoIP packets that traverse its network, a possible first step to charging VoIP providers for access, or shutting them out.It's time for the telecoms of the world to enter the modern era. VoIP is here to stay, as are other IP-based communications across their networks. If telecoms are being hurt by VoIP, there's a better solution than blocking: Learn to compete.

No business can sustain itself based on the kind of Big Brother tactics employed by these telecoms. Technology has a way of finding ways around these kinds of blocking solutions. Telecoms need to adapt or die, and by blocking VoIP instead of offering competing solutions, they're only hastening their own demises.