Etisalat blocking VPN based VOIP in UAE

VOIP is UAE has always been under radar of Local Telecom and ISP companies who doesn't want VOIP to have any serious footage in UAE telecom business. During past, we have seen that almost every VOIP Provider or service is blocked by UAE Telecom companies. When it comes to SIP based VOIP services its lot easier to just block all 5060 SIP default port and all related VOIP service would automatically fail to connect.

Now thanks to our smart brains, we managed to escape from the famous "5060" block and routed our connections through VPN. VPN is a virtual private network which can be hosted off a server outside of UAE and can be used over HTTP port 80 which can't be blocked by your ISP.

However, they are strong rumours that Etisalat is going to apply a VPN Filter to track all VPN based traffic originating from UAE. This could potentially mean they can target users in UAE using VPN extensively, mainly individuals as they generally don't need to use VPN on daily basis.

We do not know the consequences if Etisalat knows that you are using VPN for VOIP purposes, however it's always better to be safe. Now if Etisalat manages to shut the VPN thing down, VOIP could be in trouble. The only other way is to use VOIP web based services which ain't blocked in UAE. I seriously do not know the list of these, if anyone knows please share it with others.

In my opinion, Etisalat should atleast offer a competitive local VOIP option which can be used by the locals. Blocking all out VOIP is really not an option.

Do you live in UAE? Do you have something to say? Voice your views on this move by Etisalat.