Rumor: MIIT to Forbid Non-telcos from Providing Free Enterprise Voice Calling
Sina Tech, 6/22/16
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) will reportedly forbid parties who are not licensed telecom operators from offering free enterprise voice calling services, according to a source close to the matter. Affected products may include Alibaba Group's (NYSE: BABA) team collaboration app DingTalk, Yixin Technology's mobile instant messaging app YiChat, Tencent's (0700.HK) voice call application Lightalk, and enterprise services from Tencent's WeChat mobile messaging app.
In addition, the MIIT in the future will forbid parties who are not licensed telecom operators from offering free personal voice calling services, said the source.
The source also noted that China's major telecommunications carriers approached MIIT last year with a list of issues, and that MIIT has finally arrived at a decision after several months of investigation. The MIIT order will apply to enterprise-grade social communication software programs that generally advertise business phone services and give users some amount of free calling time. MIIT will reportedly issue the order within 10 to 15 days.
Representatives for DingTalk and WeChat said that they had not yet received any notification from MIIT.
Keywords: VoIP VoLTE regulation wireless MIIT
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