China to go after Internet phone services

BEIJING — China is going afterwards Internet phone services just as Skype in a move to protect the country's state-owned telephone companies, causing alarm among consumers who rely on cheap Internet calls.

China, which on Thursday announced its number of Internet users rose to 450 million this year, as well has a strong interest in exercising tight control over information, and Skype has been a popular tool with activists and others who want to share information relatively freely.

The ministry's move

The ministry's move, but, as well has business in mind. China has said only state-owned telecoms China Telecom and China Unicom have the right to offer Internet phone services for calls that link telephones and computers.

But few do. The country's major telecoms have been offering Internet phone services only on a trial basis in four cities, according to Kan Kaili, a director of China VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) & Digital Telecom Inc., a company that has offered Internet phone services. That leaves the market to the hundreds of small-scale companies have sprung up.

The telecoms' traditional voice services

"This notice is in fact protecting the telecoms' traditional voice services," said Kan, who is as well a professor at the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications. It's "evidently a wrong thing, thoroughly wrong."

Skype did not on the spur of the moment respond to a request for comment. Telephones at the ministry rang unanswered Thursday evening.

China's number of Internet phone users is not known, however a commentary in the Beijing News on Thursday estimated it at 15 million.