China has just instated a ban for at least the next two years on VOIP communications in an attempt to secure their fixed telephone business. This has been a major setback for Skype, which has been in talks for the past year to launch their SkypeOut service in China.

From the article, “China Telecom has described Skype’s services as illegal and the newspaper said last year that China was experimenting with software in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen to block them.”

I understand protecting investments and supporting money making ventures (from the government’s perspective), however this seems like it’s just hindering technological progression.

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