This week, the Ethiopian government set stringent rules on the use of voice over IP (VoIP) “to protect the indigenous telecom company.”
This rule will affect services such as Google Talk, Skype, Paltalk and any other services that use VoIP technology.
It is now a criminal offence to use such services and it will attract a penalty of 15 years in jail if anyone is found guilty.
According to Africa Review, “the telecoms law strictly prohibits VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) which includes audio and video related social media communication, and the transfer of information packages through the fast growing global cyber networks.”
The Ethiopian government said that the measures are aimed to reduce terrorist threats by cutting off communication and also to protect the sole telecom company in the country – Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation .
Analysts though differ on this and comment that the move is to crackdown on freedom of expression in the country.
Ethiopia has 85 million people in the country, but their fixed line penetration rate is as low as 1 percent. This move could be retrogressive to the IT industry as most people are familiar with the VoIP technology.
Aljazeera, the Arabic news network, said that the law was actually passed on 24 May but was not picked up by major news agencies up until recently.
