Costa Rican Regulators Look To Criminalize VoIP

from the communication-is-bad dept

This certainly isn't the first country with a government-supported telecom monopoly to freak out at VoIP, but we can now add Costa Rica to the list of places that may be reacting badly to VoIP. The telecom monopoly there has determined via the "quacks like a duck" rule that VoIP is a telephone service -- and thus, subject to regulation. On top of that, since it's a telephone service they'd rather not see exist, they're considering outlawing VoIP altogether. Some government officials seem to realize that this is a very bad idea, noting that Costa Rica has a growing tech industry and such a move could help to stall that out. Of course, this plan would backfire either way, as it will be nearly impossible to stop all forms of VoIP, but holding an entire country back from innovating to protect a monopoly seems sort of backwards.

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