Saudi Arabia to lift ban on voice and video calling apps from next week

NewsBharati    15-Sep-2017
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Riyadh, September 15: The people of Saudi Arabia will be able to use WhatsApp, Skype, Viber and many other applications from the next week as the ban on Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) calls will be lifted. Notably, the ban on Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) calls will be lifted in Saudi Arabia will be uplifted from next Wednesday.

 

The Minister of Communications and Information Technology of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah Al-Sawah officially announced that the ban on Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) calls will be lifted in Saudi Arabia within a week - by next Wednesday.

Minister Abdullah Al-Sawah said that the ban will be lifted in cooperation with telecom partners is underway to enable Saudi nationals and expatriates to benefit from applications that provide voice and video calls over the Internet and that will be in compliance with the requirements.


“The service providers have confirmed their commitment to enable all customers to use the applications to make voice and video calls of the highest quality and that they will review all applications in order to meet the requirements periodically,” Minister Abdullah added.


Minister Abdullah, in the end, quoted saying, “This fruitful cooperation between the Kingdom’s telecom partners comes under the umbrella of ‘Customer First’, a policy in which everyone works in order to give all telecom subscribers in the Kingdom the best services that meet their expectations and satisfy their needs.”


Interestingly, Skype was in wide use in Saudi Arabia for several years, until restrictions were placed on the service a year ago. The step is taken as Saudi Arabia is considered as one of the world’s fastest growing countries in terms of growth in the use of smart phones and participation in social networking platforms. However, the Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) calls is still banned in the United Arab Emirates.