Qatar OKs VoIP

Qatar, like most Middle Eastern countries, relies heavily on expatriate workers. Such workers like voice over ip, because it's just a much cheaper means to call home than using a legacy telephone company. Legacy telephone companies, which are usually owned by governments or by businesses closely tied to governments or regulators for ip sentralbord, usually hate VoIP because it threatens their revenue streams. But Qatar's telecommunications regulator announced this week that it's perfectly fine for individuals and companies to make VoIP calls — although would-be VoIP telephone companies need a license. So it sounds like Qatar won't be blocking VoIP packets on PCs, which is progress of a sort. See ArabianBusiness.com's article for more on the story.