网络电话在中国遭封杀

Online Phone Services Spur Backlash in China

State Telecom Giant Blocks
Users From PC Calling
Offered by Skype, Others

Skype Technologies SA and other Internet-telephony companies could face difficulties in one of their most promising markets, as a Chinese state-owned phone company appears to be moving to bar Chinese users from some of the companies' services.

Skype offers two basic kinds of services: one that enables users to make voice calls from one personal computer to another over the Internet, and a premium service that allows people to call regular phone numbers using their PCs.

It is the second type that appears to be triggering a backlash from China Telecom Corp., the country's dominant fixed-line phone company. Skype doesn't offer the PC-to-phone service, called SkypeOut, directly in China, but some users in China have found ways to use it anyway.

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An operator in the technical-support office of China Telecom's subsidiary in the southern city of Shenzhen said yesterday that her company has begun blocking customers from using the PC-to-phone service provided by Skype and others. The woman, whose statement was consistent with Chinese media reports in recent days, declined to be named. It wasn't clear whether similar measures have been taken in other Chinese cities.

Internet phone service is threatening established phone companies around the world. China Telecom may be especially sensitive to such competition because it is already dealing with slowing growth in its main fixed-line phone business, said Duncan Clark, managing director of BDA China, an Internet and telecommunications consultancy in Beijing. China Telecom is "in a very defensive position," he said.

Spokesmen for China Telecom couldn't be reached for comment. Hannah McCree, a spokeswoman for Luxembourg-based Skype, said the report of a China Telecom crackdown on Skype "sounds like a rumor and we don't comment on rumors."

Skype says it has 3.1 million registered users in China, making the country one of its top three markets. It began cooperating last November with Chinese Internet concern Tom Online Inc. to provide a Chinese version of Skype's software. Earlier this month, the two companies announced they were expanding their relationship into a joint venture. The existing relationship doesn't include SkypeOut, though the joint venture, according to a Sept. 5 news release, is expected to develop unspecified "premium services" in China.

Chinese government regulations classify Internet telephony as "basic telecommunications" businesses, which its rules dictate can be offered only by China's six major telecom carriers. The operator in China Telecom's Shenzhen office said the company's policy was implemented because Internet phone service has "disturbed the telecom market order." She said customers who violate the policy have their service cut off and can't have it restored unless they sign a pledge not to use it again."

A Tom Online official said his company wasn't aware of any disruption to the PC-to-PC service it offers with Skype in China. The official said Tom Online has been in discussions with Chinese telecom operators about providing Skype but that no deals have been reached.

On its Web site, Skype.tom.com, it says SkypeOut isn't allowed in mainland China. But it also notes that anyone with an international credit card can buy points from Skype's Web site. Chinese media have reported that many Chinese have downloaded the SkypeOut software from overseas Web sites.
网络电话在中国遭封杀




对Skype Technologies SA等提供互联网电话业务的企业来说，它们的在华业务可能要经历一段困难时期，原因是一家中国国有电信企业看来要禁止中国用户使用这些公司提供的一些服务。

Skype提供两种基本服务，其中的一种服务是用户以互联网为媒介、用个人电脑(PC)与另一台PC相互连接实现语音通话功能，即PC-to-PC服务。

另外一种称之为“PC-to-phone”的服务可以帮助用户通过PC直接拨打对方的电话，看起来正是这种服务遭到了中国固定电话运营商中国电信(China Telecom Corp.)的封杀。尽管Skype并不直接在中国提供名为“SkypeOut”的“PC-to-phone”服务，但仍有一些中国用户找到了使用这个服务的途径。

中国电信深圳市子公司技术支持部门的一位工作人员日前透露，她所在的公司已经开始禁止客户使用Skype和其他公司提供的PC-to-phone服务。这名员工拒绝透露她的姓名，但她的言论与近几天来中国的一些新闻报道是吻合的。目前还不清楚中国的其他城市是否也会采取封杀措施。

全球随处都可以见到网络电话对电信企业的威胁。互联网及电信行业咨询公司BDA China驻北京的董事总经理邓肯?克拉克(Duncan Clark)表示，中国电信可能对来自网络电话的竞争压力尤为敏感，这是因为此时正值它的主营业务──固定线路电话服务增长放缓之际。克拉克认为，中国电信现在的处境非常被动。

记者无法立即与中国电信的发言人取得联系以求证此事。Skype的发言人汉娜?麦克里(Hannah McCree)表示，关于中国电信封杀网络电话的报道听起来像是传闻，公司不会对传闻发表评论。

Skype表示，中国是该公司三大市场之一，在中国拥有310万的注册用户。该公司去年11月和中国互联网公司TOM在线有限公司(Tom Online Inc., 简称：TOM在线)展开合作，提供Skype软件的中文版本。本月早些时候，两家公司决定扩大合作，并组建一家合资企业。原先的合作并不包括SkypeOut，但从9月5日的新闻稿中可以看出，这家合资企业预计将在中国开发某些“超值服务”，但两家公司并未具体指出是哪些服务。

中国的政府监管部门明确规定，网络电话属于基础电信业务，而在中国只有六大电信运营商才能开展基础电信业务。前文所提到的中国电信深圳子公司的那名工作人员表示，公司之所以封杀网络电话是因为它扰乱了电信市场的正常秩序。她表示，公司已经中断了对那些使用网络电话用户的服务。如果这些用户要想恢复服务，他们就必须保证不再使用网络电话。

TOM在线的一位管理人士表示，该公司不知道它与Skype在中国大陆共同推出的PC-to-PC服务有被封杀的情况发生。这位管理人士称，TOM在线一直在与中国电信运营商就提供Skype服务的事宜进行协商，但目前还没有取得成果。

从Skype.tom.com的网站上可以看出，SkypeOut并不允许在中国使用。但该网站同时指出，只要拥有国际信用卡就可以从Skype的网站那里购买点卡、开通这项服务。此前已有中国媒体报道称，不少中国用户通过外国网站下载了SkypeOut软件。

UK PRESS: China Telecom Unit Blocks Some Skype VoIP Svc

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES A local arm of China Telecom Corp. (0728.HK), the country's biggest fixed-line telecommunications operator, has blocked access within China to a computer-to-telephone call service offered internationally by Skype Technologies SA (SKYPE.YY), the European internet telephony company, the Financial Times reported in an article on its Web site Friday. Skype doesn't offer the fee-paying 'SkypeOut' service to mainland Chinese users of its software and the action against it by the China Telecom unit hasn't affected the European company's free computer-to-computer telephone service, the FT said. The clampdown will affect people who have registered for the SkypeOut service outside China. Most are expected to be Hong Kong businesspeople who reside in China, or other expatriates, according to the paper. The action by Shenzhen Telecom, a unit of China Telecom in the southern province of Guangdong, highlights the concerns of Chinese operators about the impact of 'voice over internet protocol', or VoIP, telephone services on their businesses, the newspaper said. An employee of China Telecom in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, said the operator had the technical means to block access to SkypeOut, but gave no details. It wasn't clear if SkypeOut was being blocked in other areas of China, the FT report said. Tom Online Inc. (8282.HK), an internet portal that is Skype's partner in China, said it hadn't heard any complaints from users about access to the service it offers in China, which doesn't include SkypeOut, the newspaper said.
英国报摘：中国电信子公司封锁了Skype的部分VoIP服务

据《金融时报》(Financial Times)网络版上周五报导，中国电信股份有限公司 (China Telecom Corp. Ltd., 0728.HK, 简称：中国电信)的一家本地子公司已经在中国国内封锁了欧洲互联网电话公司Skype Technologies SA (SKYPE.YY)的电脑对电话(computer-to-telephone)呼叫服务的接入。 中国电信是中国最大的固定线路电信运营商。Skype Technologies在全球范围内提供上述服务。 《金融时报》的报导称，Skype没有在提供这种收费“SkypeOut“服务时向中国大陆用户提供相应的软件，中国电信子公司的这次封锁行动尚未对该欧洲公司的免费电脑对电脑(computer-to-computer)电话服务造成影响。 据报导，此次封锁将对那些在中国大陆以外地区注册使用SkypeOut服务的用户造成影响。报导称，预计多数受影响的用户为居住在中国大陆的香港商人，或是其他一些海外移居者。 报导称，此次封锁行动是由中国电信在广东省的一家子公司深圳电信(Shenzhen Telecom)实施的，此举凸现出中国运营商对互联网语音传输协议(VoIP)服务给其业务带来不利影响的担忧。 《金融时报》报导，据中国电信驻广州的一位雇员透露，该运营商采取技术手段封锁了SkypeOut服务的接入，但并未透露细节。目前尚不清楚SkypeOut服务是否在中国其他地区也遭到封锁。 该报称，Skype在中国大陆的合作夥伴TOM在线有限公司(Tom Online Inc., 8282.HK, 简称：TOM在线)表示，该公司尚未接到有关客户无法接入其在中国大陆推出的服务的投诉，但其服务并不包括SkypeOut服务。