Comments on: VoIP: Do Irish Operators block it?

By: John Rafterey

John Rafterey — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 13:47:46 +0000

No kind of VoIP runs on any standard Vodafone 3G, nobody says nothing when you buy the modem or register, everything is deeply hidden somewhere on the website. Vodafone employs deep packet inspection to detect VoIP, that’s why it takes 4-5 seconds before throttling. I work not in Vodafone but in the other company who created the packet inspection solution.

By: Mark Keo

Mark Keo — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:15:10 +0000

We signed up to a year contract with Vodafone here in Dublin and the salesperson in the Vodafone store assured us that if we were gonna be using skype we better opt for the ‘unlimited’ 20 euro a month deal. So we signed up for that and here we are after 3 months still trying to make one Skype call successfully. Couldn’t unbderstand what it could be until now, after googling the topic, I see that Vodafone are targeting Skype. We are definitely getting out of this contract! Besides the Skype issue, the speed is lousy.

By: Fran Power

Fran Power — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:20:28 +0000

..I was trying to use Skype with the Nimbuzz app for the Nokia 5230 by the way. No point now

By: Fran Power

Fran Power — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:18:33 +0000

Well vodafone definitely block VoIP’s in Ireland and UK. I called their tech support/customer service just there and the service agent didn’t seem to give a shit when I told him I would change network over this issue. Just lookin around for the best network now, O2 look better.

http://mobile.engadget.com/2007/05/02/vodafone-being-sued-over-voip-blocking/

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:33:35 +0000

Slightly off topic but I’m using a Huawei E220 for 3G access on my PC with Vodafone Ireland and can’t seem to set up a temporary FTP server on port 21, port 80 or port 8080.

Does anyone know if Vodafone.ie leaves any ports open for a temporary inbound connection?

I’ve tried port scanning tools and it tells me everything inbound is closed, but I’m finding that (almost) hard to believe.

Sean.

By: B Murphy

B Murphy — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:03:58 +0000

I recently bought the 19.99 euro per month O2 broadband service for my sister in Co. Mayo. I tried it out in Cork and Skype to skype connections seemed to be blocked, but Skype out worked fine.

By: Bluefrog

Bluefrog — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:39:20 +0000

I used VOIP with Eircom with no issues for the last 2 years – residential account. Don’t know if they discriminate for business.

As for 3 Ireland with X-Series Gold now I am happy to report that both Fring and classic SIP protocols work fine.

By: Paul Walsh

Paul Walsh — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:31:44 +0000

Actually I can confirm that Eircom do in fact blovk VOIP traffic.

To cut a long story short, a company I worked with changed over to VOIP and had problems where the number kept could not be called and a lot more.

After tracing the packets and threating eircom with disclosure and that “we will go to comreg” , the problem magicially fixed itself.

I do realise that this is slightly off topic but it is relevent.

By: Bluefrog

Bluefrog — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 22:11:16 +0000

Well Fring did work on Three Ireland but it would seem no longer as a major port blocking exercise has taken place. Nor do SIP based VOIP services such as Truphone or Gizmo work any longer.

While there is a crippled Skype client with X-Series the promise was exciting unfortunately the reality is rather less so. The Three Skype client only works in areas covered by 3G though Skype through Fring got along quite happily with GPRS, it has no text facility and oddly doesn’t support usernames with underscores.

For more see
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055147970
and
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055142078

By: Ruben

Ruben — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:00:24 +0000

I also agree with John Handelaar, we cannot say Voip==Skype.

I have been fighting with Three.ie, the company that provide me with 3G internet (I won’t say broadband) in Ireland, since weeks ago because no one of my 4 Voip phones works when I use the internet. But they work when I am in other network.

I called many many times to the customer support asking for the list of ports that they block and I got no answer, just a list of supported applications (my Linux is not on the list of supported OS, by the way) for the accelerator.

Anyway, I was going to write here quite big that three.ie (3) block Voip (but not skype), but after read to Bernard talking so confident, I decided to open ‘again’ my Voip Phone. Now it works.

Maybe they changed their policy or just stopped blocking my communications. But at least today I won’t have to call with the expensive Skype just because they block my other cheap accounts.

I started using 3G with Three.ie (3) the 14th of July 2007.
Today (10th August) is the first day my Voip phone works on Three.ie network.

Thanks to all of you. )