Many of the phone companies that own the wires connecting people to the internet are gearing up to block free phone calls that use voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technology.
The online edition of IEEE Spectrum, the house journal of the US Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, says phone companies in France, Germany, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have announced they will block VoIP calls on their networks.
New software from Narus of Mountain View, California, will help them do it. Called IP Platform, it can detect VoIP's characteristic data packets, allowing the phone company to block or de-prioritise them. This either stops the call entirely or makes it sound awful, and the companies hope this will drive people back to paid-for phones.
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