Skype: We Have Not Been Banned in China

I live in China and use Skype often: Skype-to-skype calls work no problem, but Skype-to-phone calls are indeed blocked. Skype-to-phone calls work on the first second or so, and then the call sounds like "scrambled" (for a lack of better word to describe), very noisy so you cannot hear the other side. I make Skype-to-phone calls using a VPN, which works just fine.

You can make Skype-to-phone calls with Tom-Skype (the Chinese Skype partner), but you need to buy credits through their system.

If the People's Daily is an official government newspaper, how is the ban "rumored"?

In case anyone was wondering, Ebay's partnership with Tom-Skype is simply to give the Chinese government a back door through Skype's security. If you are using Skype in China, DO NOT use Tom-Skype. Find a way to get the real thing.

An old blog post of mine:

http://blog.stacktrace.com/2008/10/02/chinese-monitor-tom-sk...