Saudi Arabia May Ban Skype

By Paul Thomson :: 8:47 AM

Saudi Arabia’s telecommunications companies may be set to ban the use of encrypted messaging services like Skype, Viper and WhatsApp. They are doing so at the request of the country’s telecommunications regulation bureau.

The applications have been contacted by telecom regulators and have been asked to provide a way for the government to monitor transmissions from the apps that originate or terminate in the country – the companies have been given one week to respond to the government request.

While Saudi newspapers are reporting this turn of events, no reason for the ban or the monitoring requests have been officially given by a government representative,

The BBC news cites a Saudi blogger, Ahmed Omran, who claims that the country’s telecom firms may be willing to go along with the ban request because of the revenue that the apps cause them to lose from their traditional telecommunications services.