EU telco regulators want joint voice on VoIP rules

EU telco regulators want joint voice on VoIP rules

The European Union's 27 national telecom regulators want harmonised rules governing voice conversations over the Internet in the 27-nation bloc, the chair of the regulators' group said on Tuesday. "Voice over IP has been identified as a key area for harmonisation," Roberto Viola, chair of the European Regulators' Group said at a briefing on Tuesday over the group's general assembly earlier this month.

Companies like Ebay Inc's Skype compete with traditional phone operators by offering voice over Internet conversations. VoIP call providers say they are Internet services, not telecom operators, thus not obliged to offer services like emergency calls. EU national regulators say they have to co-operate on Internet calls as these do not follow the national boundaries.

"Pan-European potential (of voice over IP) is prevented by the non-alignment of national regulations," Viola said. "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," Viola said, adding that allowing the use of the same number via internet in different countries would be in the interest of consumers. Viola said national regulators also agreed that number portability should be allowed on condition that providers use the relevant numbers available. He said agreeing on these principles had not been easy because EU states had different practices on the matter.