EU taking position in VoIP
The 27 telecom regulators in the European Union, today announced they want harmonised rules for Voice over IP communications within the union. Until now, this is not the case and every country can impose rules on what is and what isn’t allowed for voice communications. This has made it increasingly difficult for VoIP startups who want to offer service in multiple European countries. Some countries allow the nomadic use of VoIP numbers, while some don’t, others won’t even allow you to sell a VoIP service without proof that your customer is a EU resident.
This is all about to change as Roberto Viola, chair of the European Regulators’ Group said at a briefing on Tuesday: “We agreed that a nomadic use of geographic number of voice over IP should be allowed in Europe. That is an important change because in many member states this is not allowed,” adding that allowing the use of the same number via internet in different countries would be in the interest of consumers.
While this is an important sign, it is only a first step. The EU will have to draft a guideline and it will take some time before each country updates their law to reflect these new changes. In the end, both consumers and providers will benefit from this decision.
