Voiceover internet protocol (VOIP) - information

Hi Peta,

I believe that qtel does allow the use of Skype - but the site for obtaining credit has been blocked. Another option which possibly has not been blocked is Voipbuster.

Hi Peta and Doug,

You see, Qatar is such a poor country (3rd richest?hmmmm) that it needs to make a lot of money.
A good way to make money is by taking advantage of the poor expat that works here for a miserable wages and who needs to speak regularly to his wife and children back home so he can keep his sanity.

A couple of months ago, QTel had this wonderful idea that it would make more money if it disabled the internet sites that the poor expat with a misarable wages uses to speak free of charge to his family.

Genius, isn't it?

Hello,

Slowly, over the years Qatari officialdom has seen fit to ban nearly all VOIP providers, from Net2phone to Phoneserve. Nevertheless, Skype still works, both the free service and the credit version.

If you want the latest version [1.4.0.84], search and download it load via a BitTorrent site.

I have tried to buy credit over the Internet whilst in Doha, using a locally issued credit card and it does not work. However, it will work if you have somebody outside Qatar buy the credit using the same card.

I spoke with somebody in Singapore the other day for an hour and forty minutes, the cost was only €2.42 or QR10.30.

Regrads,

Hi,

1. The rates (sorry, they are in €'s) for Australia are…

Destination Rate/minute Rate/minute incl. VAT

Australia € 0.017 € 0.020
Australia - Mobile € 0.165 € 0.190
Australia-Canberra € 0.017 € 0.020
Australia-Shared Cost € 0.017 € 0.020
Australia-Sydney € 0.017 € 0.020
Australian Ex Territories € 0.550 € 0.632

2. The credit is in $US only.

3. A simple headset and microphone. You do not need the Skype headsets that are widely available in Doha for QR200 plus. What I use cost me only QR10.00.

4. I think $US 10.00 is the minimum that you can purchase, it is what I buy.

Skype is owned by E-Bay, they purchased the company earlier this year.

Regards,

After contacting customer service today, I found out that Qatar is indeed blocking VoIP (including voice chat servers like MSN). This has been corroborated by several other sources at my place of employment and members of the Vonage forum. This is contrary to what customer service was telling us over the weekend: that the service outage was due to a loss of bandwidth. A QTel representativestold me that this is what they were told that they were as shocked as customers were. A Vonage forum member said a rep told him he was told to lie when questioned about the outage.

As an American citizen I intend to contact the U.S. Embassy about this as have several members of the Vonage forum. I hope other VoIP users will do the same and inform QTel of intentions to downgrade or cancel their internet subscriptions should the blockage not cease immediately. I know that, for myself, QTel is getting far more money from my internet subscription than from my trans-continental calls prior to activation of my Vonage line.

As a Muslim, if QTel fails to act, I intend to file suit against QTel in the Shari'a courts as the alteration of services without notification and the opportunity to cancel is a violation of divine injuctions regarding sale and contract in the Islamic Shari'ah (Religious Law).

We remain patient. "And God is with the patient."

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