The US military won an important victory last month: the right to continue making VoIP calls from South Korea.
The Ministry of Information and Communication was poised to block the 12,000 US servicemen of US Forces Korea (USFK) from using US-based VoIP services such as Vonage, AT&T CallVantage and Lingo to call home. However, the MIC and Dacom agreed to a request from USKF to suspend a decision on the ban until an acceptable arrangement could be worked out.
Dacom, as well as ISPs KT and Hanaro, have complained that services like Vonage were not in compliance with the country's Telecommunications Business Act. Banning use of such services would force USKP to use Korean VoIP services, which USKP officials say are more expensive compared to US-based services, according to US military daily newspaper Stars & Stripes.