Etisalat to introduce international VoIP from Q2?

The United Arab Emirates’ incumbent telecoms operator Etisalat plans to offer international IP telephony services from the second quarter of this year, the company’s COO Essa Haddad told Reuters, as reported by Arabian Business. ‘We are talking about Q2 2012… Any price change has to be [approved] by the regulator and that’s why it’s taking time because we need to get this finalised,’ Haddad said when asked when Etisalat would launch voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) services. At present, only the UAE’s licensed telecoms companies are permitted to offer VoIP services, although other firms, such as Skype, are authorised to join forces with one of the local operators to legally offer the service.