I have read multiple times that VoIP is illegal in Lebanon, but I never real found any concrete and official evidence.

So far, people have been referring me to the following:

1. The MPT website: "Voice over IP and Videoconferencing are illegal in Lebanon"
2. A letter sent by ex-minister Bassil asking ISPs to block VoIP (thanks Nuclearcat!)
3. Press articles referring to Telecom Law 431/2002 (english version).

(1) You can't qualify something as illegal just because it is written on a governmental website.
(2) The minister has executive, not legislative power. He must be applying a pre-existing law.
(3) I skimmed through the 431 law and couldn't find anything about VoIP.

Can anyone clarify the situation? Where is the exact official text banning the use of VoIP in Lebanon.
When it comes to technology here in Lebanon, that's a big grey area. There are no rules specifying the consequences for using VoIP therefor you may use it freely.
Samer its almost clear its not to allow users to override the international rates given by our Lebanese government because the telecommunication part is the most important part in the Lebanese economy .
I don't know if this concerns this topic but Western Union international calls' rates are as you all know much lower than the MOT.
I often wondered if they use VoIP or they have some kind of agreement with the MOT.
About the legality of VoIP since the MOT is not providing clear answers about this, maybe somebody should ask the ISPs about this maybe they could help clear things up.
Isn't this about Internet Fair Use? How can they ban certain types of traffic yet allow others? Just asking.
Well, if something is not clearly stated as illegal, then its legal... unless it falls (and it has to, clearly) under some general law that implies so. I've not read much about it (read any), so i can't say..
One thing I like about countries like the UK, US, and Australia is they use case law. In many instances, there have been laws passed by legislators which have never been enforced and courts have ruled that lack of enforcement of a rule basically made the rule null and void. However, we inherited a codified law based on how the French do it, so all that is pretty useless.

I would say that it in a gray area where its legality is in question. We have never really had broadband in this country which allowed the monopoly on long distance calling to be challenged by new technologies (VoIP). My guess is that if the government sees that it is eating a significant part of its funds, then it will be illegal; otherwise they will leave it alone. The ministerial statements and other stuff around it have really convoluted the issue.
Government must have been facing some serious issues with losing money to even pass this "law"

That being said, you have got me interested in the issue. Been reading around many other forums, no definitive answers.

Regardless, i stll know many that have opted to their SIP phones and such, yet that isn't a user friendly nor logical solution.

As already said its a grey area. Im pretty sure there are ways around this, yet i doubt any time soon the police will come knocking on your door asking you to step out and get in their car. Then again we can't be too ignorant about Lebanese Law - no matter how "broken" i still don't think we should undermine governmental authority - if any.

Either way, i won't be satisfied until i see a more or less convincing official statement.
VoIP is legal, the proof: in the mtc touch 3g test, the minister himself (nahhas) tried VoIP, which ends the discussion i think!
@khalil13 its not the first time ministers do illegal things LOL
But any way in the UAE i know its certainly illegal as all the Skype websites and everything are blocked , if VOLP was illegal then it should be made clear. So with the current given info it is legal. :)
The only proper way to do official inquiry for clarification to TRA and ministry
I know a call center in Batroun (called CCI) that uses VOIP to make phone calls to USA, Canada, Europe and Australia.

They have multiple E1 connections from Ogero which means that they are permitted to use VOIP in their calls. They have custom built software to do so as well.
Georges wroteI know a call center in Batroun (called CCI) that uses VOIP to make phone calls to USA, Canada, Europe and Australia.

They have multiple E1 connections from Ogero which means that they are permitted to use VOIP in their calls. They have custom built software to do so as well.
i hear that these stores (that make cheap internationa phone calls) are illegal, don't know why, but i am sure of this!
khalil13 wrote
Georges wroteI know a call center in Batroun (called CCI) that uses VOIP to make phone calls to USA, Canada, Europe and Australia.

They have multiple E1 connections from Ogero which means that they are permitted to use VOIP in their calls. They have custom built software to do so as well.
i hear that these stores (that make cheap internationa phone calls) are illegal, don't know why, but i am sure of this!
As far as i know, it's not. A ministry representative was there few days ago to discuss new internet prices.
a month later
samer wroteI have read multiple times that VoIP is illegal in Lebanon, but I never real found any concrete and official evidence.

So far, people have been referring me to the following:

1. The MPT website: "Voice over IP and Videoconferencing are illegal in Lebanon"
2. A letter sent by ex-minister Bassil asking ISPs to block VoIP (thanks Nuclearcat!)
3. Press articles referring to Telecom Law 431/2002 (english version).

(1) You can't qualify something as illegal just because it is written on a governmental website.
(2) The minister has executive, not legislative power. He must be applying a pre-existing law.
(3) I skimmed through the 431 law and couldn't find anything about VoIP.

Can anyone clarify the situation? Where is the exact official text banning the use of VoIP in Lebanon.
Hey Samer,
I am a Lebanese Lawyer and have just checked your post, I can inform you that VoIP is illegal in Lebanon based on the law number 127/59 (it's a 1959 law) which grants the state (of Lebanon) monopoly over the ownership and management of telephony.
Back then (in 1959) there was no IP Telephony but now they base this ban on this law since IP telephony is a kind of telephony.
The 31st of March 2010 the telecom minister handed a ministerial decree ordering ISP's to ban VoIP from their end but Skype and other software cannot be stopped since the IP of skype is made of letter (skype.xyz.qww....) not numbers (172.16.241.1), so skype changes IP's every day; that way it cannot be stopped.
In conclusion, most of the government's income comes from Telecom, that's why they don't want to lose money to the free IP telephony but since they cannot stop it efficiently, I hope they adopt it and legalize it.

Cheers
exiztenz,
thanks a lot for the much needed clarifications.
Skype and other software cannot be stopped since the IP of skype is made of letter (skype.xyz.qww....) not numbers (172.16.241.1)
This does not really make sense. An IP address (IPv4, at least) is by definition numerical.The letters you are referring to constitute the hostname. Hostnames can easily be banned, so I guess there is another technical difficulty that is making it hard to ban Skype. I'm guessing ISPs either don't have the right equipement or don't know how to get it to work correctly.
well yeah, but I can add that it is Legal but tolerated when used in a non-commercial way
samer wroteexiztenz,
thanks a lot for the much needed clarifications.
Skype and other software cannot be stopped since the IP of skype is made of letter (skype.xyz.qww....) not numbers (172.16.241.1)
This does not really make sense. An IP address (IPv4, at least) is by definition numerical.The letters you are referring to constitute the hostname. Hostnames can easily be banned, so I guess there is another technical difficulty that is making it hard to ban Skype. I'm guessing ISPs either don't have the right equipement or don't know how to get it to work correctly.
Samer, they can stop it, but it is using P2P and protocol obfuscation, so plain "stop domain zzz" will not work.

There is effective way to make Skype voice and video unusable, but there is no legal way to define that.
It might not be strictly illegal, but there surely is something...
Skype and other software cannot be stopped since the IP of skype is made of letter (skype.xyz.qww....) not numbers (172.16.241.1)
Anything flies... :-D
could it be the fact that skype is a p2p program, and whenever you skype someone the only time you directly interact with the skype server is to search for that contact? Maybe if voip passed through the skype server it would be blocked but given that it is more difficult to block each p2p connection then it goes through (strong encryption maybe?)