China 'to block VoIP calls for two years'
In the clearest indication so far of when charged telephone services based on the "voice over internet protocol" system will be launched in China, Wang Leilei, Tom Online's chief executive said the government "is not going to issue VoIP licences until 2008".
The news will be a disappointment to Skype, which told the Financial Times in November that it was in talks with Chinese telecoms operators which it hoped would clear the way for the launch of its computer-to-telephone service, dubbed SkypeOut.
Chinese fixed-line operators are concerned that SkypeOut, which allows users to make calls from computers via the internet to fixed-line or mobile telephones at lower rates, could undermine their core business.
Skype currently offers a free computer-to-computer telephony service to its 9m users in China, although calls are limited to five minutes. It also launched a free computer-to-telephone service about a month ago, which has signed up 10,000 users a day.
Mr Wang said that Tom Online, which claims to have more than 70m users, was not disappointed that it could not launch SkypeOut commercially.
"For Tom Online, our strategy is to grow our user base. With a big user base, there is a lot you can do. Revenue [from SkypeOut] is not important to us because we have not put in a lot of cost," said Mr Wang.
Mr Wang also said the company, controlled by Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong tycoon, would consider acquisitions to lift its user numbers.
But he declined to comment on widespread rumours that Tom Online would merge with its rival Sina, which has 180m users worldwide.
"We have no comment on it. We love Sina. We love their user base," Mr Wang said. Tom Online, which currently generates most of its revenue from wireless services such as text and multimedia messaging, on Friday reported record revenue and profit for 2005 as Chinese mobile users downloaded more songs and ringtones.
Revenue grew by 40 per cent to US$172.11m and net income rose 32.7 per cent to US$45.01m.
中国可能“2年内不会批准网络电话”
TOM在线(Tom Online)首席执行官王雷雷称，中国至少在未来2年内不会批准电脑与传统电话间的付费通话服务。这家中国互联网门户企业与互联网电话公司Skype拥有一家合资公司。
对于“IP语音”(VoIP)付费电话服务何时可在中国推出的问题，王雷雷做出了迄今最明确的表示，称中国政府“在2008年以前不会颁发VoIP牌照。”
这个消息将令Skype失望。去年11月，该公司告诉英国《金融时报》，它正与中国的电信运营商进行谈判，为推出SkypeOut电脑对电话(computer-to-telephone)通话服务扫清道路。
SkypeOut允许电脑用户通过互联网拨打固定或移动电话，收费较低。中国固定电话运营商担心，这种服务将破坏它们的核心业务。目前，Skype向中国900万用户提供电脑对电脑的免费电话服务，但通话时间被限制在5分钟以内。大约一个月前，该公司还推出了电脑到电话的免费通话服务，这项服务每天新增注册用户1万人。
