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As already mentioned in this blog, I’m just back from Dubai where I attended the VoIP World 2008 Middle East conference.
The conference was not that crowded like the big VoIP conferences we are used to go to, but the room was full of C-level managers of local companies interested to learn more about VoIP and new emerging applications. In a nutshell, highly selected people and great content.
The first important thing I learnt here is that the local government of the United Arab Emirates is blocking VoIP. According to what I learnt from some guys at Etisalat, the local incumbent that also provides mobile services, local calls are very expensive in the UAE (15 to 20 eurocents to call from acity to another city in the UAE) so the government doesn’t allow other players to enter this market by using VoIP in order to protect this very big business. Maybe, but it’s not clear yet, only local telcos (Etisalat and Du) will be allowed to offer VoIP.
In the enterprise market, instead, VoIP is only permitted to connect branches of the same enterprise, but, for example, you cannot use it to connect different enterprises, you have to use the PSTN instead. In addition, to use VoIP in a private environment you cannot use internet but you have to own the pipe that connects the branches and this pipe, because you’ll use VoIP on top of that, will cost much more to companies.
It seems that the main fear of the government is to loose the control of the market, even if many think this is going to end sooner or later. And, in other words, there is a huge opportunity because as soon as VoIP is permitted here, the first players which will hit this market are more likely to succeed. I also found out that some forums where people discuss how to use this or that VoIP service in the UAE are blocked. This is an example.
Here in Dubai I’m getting this:
Aside from the regulamentary issues mentioned above, there is a tremendous interest in VoIP and in all the related applications, reason why many representatives of the local incumbent and of other big players were at the conference to “learn more”.
I also got in touch with a number of people working in this space who I never met before. Among the others, Xavier Casajoana, CEO of Voz Telecom, a spanish Telecom operator, which is launching a new web based “free” on demand telephony service targeted to the SMB market, Oigaa and Rhonda O’Donnell, CEO of Freshtel, a VoIP service from Australia. Both of them offered interesting perspectives and we were all involved in an interesting panel about Mobile VoIP.
Aside from Rhonda, who firmly believes that VoIP over Wifi will be the future, both me and Xavier pointed out that right now GSM still rules and mobile services who want to get a chance to grow an fair user base and to survive must offer service over GSM too, as companies like Truphone (by launching Truphone Anywhere and buying Sim4Travel) already understood.
In conclusion, a great event in a great location. Dubai is definitely a fascinating place, a completely brand new modern city just in the middle of the desert. Skyscrapers, roadworks, sand and humidity everywhere, but I liked it (especially the almost 100-115 degrees Fahrenheit). I look forward to participating to this event again next year, hopefully in Dubai again (but in winter!!!).
Note: this post was much longer but, don’t tell me why, I lost part of this post in the process of publishing it to the blog, so I had to write it again…. I’ll write more in other posts.
