Skype Banned in China

Recently, the Chinese government has enacted new laws banning all internet phone calls aside from the ones made over China Unicom and China Telecom, which are two state-owned networks. This move “is expected to make services like Skype unavailable in the country,” according to the People’s Daily (the “official mouth” of the Communist Party). Years ago Skype partnered with Tom Online, and that’s how Skype says people can still access it. The rules say computer-to-land-line calls will be banned, but that may still leave computer-to-computer calls legal. “It is very unlikely that they will manage to shut Skype down,” said Professor Kan Kaili at Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications. “Skype is the market leader, but there is also MSN and Gmail Talk. The children of Chinese government officials, who are studying abroad, use these services to call home, so I do not think anyone is going to cut the lines. Even if they take a strict approach, such as getting local operators to block the broadband services of people who use Skype, people will still find a way around it,” he added.