EU seeks VoIP 'harmonisation'

The 27 different telecoms regulators across the European Union have come together to work for a harmonised set of standards and rules.

Issues like emergency calls and crossing national boundaries are set to be addressed by the Euroepan Regulators Group.

Chair of the government body, Roberto Viola, said: "Voice over IP has been identified as a key area for harmonisation.

"We agreed that a nomadic use of geographic number of voice over IP should be allowed in Europe. That is an important change because in many member states this is not allowed."

This allows the same number to be used by a VoIP customer no matter which European country they are in, but the providers must use the allocated numbers for this to be valid.

Under the EU regulator's definition, VoIP call operators are viewed as telecoms firms since their services cross national boundaries, but many VoIP providers dispute this - saying they are internet services and so should be exempt from some regulations.