[kictanet] Ethiopia and the Technical Control of OTTs

[John Gitau]

Point of clarification -most if not all telcos have some or a combination
of dpi/lawful ontercept and general traffic steering mechanisms. What and
how they choose to use the technology however might not be very agreeable.
On 4 Apr 2016 15:15, "Mose Karanja via kictanet" <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> Jambo!
>
> Ethiopia’s only telco, Ethiotel, has announced it will be charging for
> VOIP services considering they are loosing revenue to the Vibers and
> WhatsApps of these world.
> They floated a Request for Information on the supply of Policy and
> Charging Control (PCC) and Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) mid last year:
> http://www.ethionet.et/sites/default/files/bid/RFQ-3209012.pdf
>
> It seems the set up is complete and they will go ahead with implementation
> (
> http://www.addisinsight.com/ethio-telecom-charge-services-like-viber-whatsapp/).
> There have been network disruptions since last week on VOIP apps and some
> basic probes I did pointed to IP address blocking but whatever it is they
> are doing notwithstanding, this raises some issues here.
>
> The fight back from telcos against OTTs in the name of
> revenue/tax/infrastructure costs seems to have moved beyond policy.
> Technical capacity implies that debate is closed on their end. Ethiotel is
> a special case considering it is fully owned by the government and it is
> the only telco in Africa’s second most populous country (around 95Million
> people). It is easier for them to make decisions. For countries with more
> liberalised markets, and where government is a regulator not a service
> provider, could it be that the only impediment to adopting such technical
> capacities is government regulation and oversight? Could it be that
> Kenyans, for example, are charged to use WhatsApp but at a very negligible
> fee that no one notices?
>
> This moves beyond the market - it is a human rights issue. Consumers
> should not be punished for adopting innovations.
>
> Moses.
>
> ---
> Moses Karanja | @Mose_Karanja <https://twitter.com/Mose_Karanja> | PGP:
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