UAE to Lift Ban on WhatsApp Calls

The United Arab Emirates—UAE has hinted that it might lift the ban on WhatsApp calls.

The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority—TRA has as per the latest measure, restricted the usage of many applications of VoIP in the UAE, like Tango, Viber, Skype and Facetime.

During an interview with the CNBC, Mohammad Al Kuwaiti—the Executive Director of the National Electronic Security Authority of UAE said that the UAE has surged its collaborations with the big technology platforms on the national security initiatives, especially with WhatsApp—owned by Facebook.

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He said that the collaboration with WhatsApp has actually surged and in many such projects, they saw a very good understanding of the concept.

Al Kuwaiti said that there might be a lift on that ban for the WhatsApp voice calls and this would be happening soon, this is what they know and understand from the UAE’s telecommunication authority.

Earlier, Microsoft gave confirmation that it was in talks with the TRA for lifting the ban on Skype. Skype is a part of the Microsoft Office 365 and at present, only the text-based chat feature is available on Skype for businesses.

Back in December of 2017, Etisalat and du blocked Skype across the nation as the app provided unlicensed VoIP services, which falls under the category of barred content as per the UAE’s Regulatory Framework.

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