People who use VoIP regularly lamented that the glitch happened during the holidays when people have plenty of time to speak and see their families and friends online. The problem started on Thursday morning.
A resident in Doha's East Al Hilal who is taking her Eid break since Thursday told Gulf Times that she failed to contact her parents on FaceTime, thinking that internet connection either in her apartment or back home was just too slow.
“I tried to contact my mom again today (Friday) but I experienced the same problem, they hear my voice but it’s garbled,” she said. “I tried Viber, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger but also failed.”
Some residents thought that their WiFi connection bogged down due to heavy traffic online, speculating that nearly all those who are staying home for the Eid al-Adha break were using VoIP, aside from browsing and uploading pictures on social media.
Many others first thought something was wrong with their smartphones and thought of taking them to technicians for checkup and possible repair.
Meanwhile, those who belong to several Viber groups failed to upload and send photos to their contacts for two days (until yesterday) using either WiFi or Data connections.
Some Viber users had to shift and create new group accounts on WhatsApp for them to get in touch and share some documents and pictures, it is learnt.
Sheila, a mother of two, told Gulf Times that she could not see her two children and husband online since Thursday because of the glitch.
Like other users, she also tried these apps - Viber, Messenger, WhatsApp and FaceTime – but to no avail. It is very disappointing,” she said. “But I hope it will be fixed as soon as possible since most of us want to see our loved ones back home.”
Local video calls on Facebook Messenger were working yesterday, noted a user, who tried it at around 3.49pm to contact his wife. But he said he failed to connect with his parents in the Philippines.
A large number of residents prefer using VoIP services for video calls and chats since cost is cheaper compared to regular calls and SMS.
Although not specifically related to the current situation, Qatar’s policy on VoIP has been explained by the communications regulator Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) under the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
In its website the CRA said, “VoIP is a technology for the delivery of voice services using existing internet infrastructure and services. There are no laws or rules that prohibit the use of such technology within the State of Qatar.
“The Telecommunications Law 34 of 2006 does, however, makes it illegal for any person to provide telecommunications services to the public for a direct or indirect fee without a licence issued by ictQATAR for that purpose.”
Currently, the only two entities licensed by ictQATAR to provide such voice services to the public in Qatar are Ooredoo and Vodafone Qatar.
In response to the glitch, Ooredoo tweeted that “Quality assurance for calling using these apps is out of Ooredoo’s control.”
“However, we can guarantee that the issues are not from Ooredoo Super net. Eid Mubarak,” the company added.
Meanwhile, several websites reported yesterday that WhatsApp was down for more than two hours in multiple countries around the world with most complaints seemed to be originating from Asia, South America, and Europe, as well as the US. WhatsApp, which has more than 1bn users globally, is widely used in individual and group chats.
People who use VoIP regularly lamented that the glitch happened during the holidays when people have plenty of time to speak and see their families and friends online.
Many Qatar residents continued facing difficulties for the second day on Friday in making calls through Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) apps, as well as uploading big files such as pictures on WhatsApp, Viber, and Facebook Messenger.
