<i>"Etisalat is set to mark a new milestone, a revolution in internet and telephony that will change the future of telecommunication in the region."</i> So reads an invite to a press conference being hosted by Etisalat this Wednesday. The "revolution in internet and telephony" has me thinking this is some sort of special new VoIP application being released by Etisalat, although it could be something completely different. There is a misperception that VoIP services like Skype are banned and blocked in the UAE. This is not true. Only licensed telecommunications companies (Etisalat and du) can offer commercial calling services, which is why the Skype website - which lets you charge up your account with a credit card to make calls to phones and landlines - is blocked. But there is nothing wrong with sending voice over the internet, as anybody who uses Xbox Live, MSN Messenger or any of a million other web applications that include voice chat would know. And Skype works just fine if you already have it installed. Because Etisalat has a telecom license, it is free to release some kind of desktop VoIP application, more expensive than Skype but cheaper than anything else on the market. But will it? We will all find out on Wednesday.