UAE plans to lift ban on WhatsApp

After a long time, the United Arab Emirates has finally decided to think about the lifting ban on WhatsApp. However, it is not confirmed yet. If UAE finally lifts the ban on WhatsApp then it will be the first free Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services available in the country.

Dr. Mohamed Al-Kuwaiti. Executive Director, National Electronic Security Authority, UAE’s said that they worked on their relations with different social media services including WhatsApp, and we have finalized the framework of WhatsApp operation in the country.

“The collaboration with WhatsApp has actually increased, and in many of those [projects] we saw a very good understanding [from them] of the concept we have,” “There might be a lift of that ban for [WhatsApp] voice calls… and this is going to happen soon, this is what we know and understand from the telecommunication authority here in the UAE,” said Al Kuwaiti.

Earlier this year when local news agency Gulf News reported about the ongoing talks between authorities and WhatApp. In an interview with Gulf News Dr. Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, Director-General of the Smart Dubai Office told: “When it comes to telecommunications, we are working very closely with our strategic partners and the telecommunication industry to understand with them how we can lift these kinds of restrictions to boost our economy more.”

Not only Whatsapp, Skype Face Time and Viber are also banned in UAE for a very long time. But recently there is news that different services are in talks with the government.

Microsoft also confirmed that it was in talks with The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of UAE to lift the ban on its Skype. Which was imposed by Etisalat in 2017 for providing unlicensed VoIP services, “which falls under the classification of prohibited contents as per the United Arab Emirates’ Regulatory Framework.”