The Chinese government has reached an agreement to purchase software from an American company that blocks free Internet phone calls like Skype.
The main software provider is Verso Technologies, and the software designed to block PC-to-Phone calls that the company sold to China is currently only a trial version. However, the report did not disclose the name of the Chinese telecommunications company that directly purchased this software.
Verso’s software allows carriers to selectively disable unwanted network bandwidth consumption. Currently, the Chinese government is testing the blocking of PC-to-Phone and PC-to-PC calls in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. They plan to implement a full system to block free Internet phone services within the next two years if the trial results are successful.
In September 2005, it was reported that China Telecom, the leading state-owned telecommunications company in China, was considering shutting down unprofitable phone service companies due to the impact of free Internet phone calls. Currently, there are approximately 3.4 to 4 million Skype users in China. This explains why Skype is the primary target of this campaign.
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