According to the People’s Daily , Chinese authorities have said that only China Telecom and China Unicom will be allowed to provide Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services to customers. Both China Telecom and China Unicom — the former is the largest land-line telephone company in the country, the latter is the nation’s second-largest 3G mobile carrier — are state controlled.

Yesterday, Wang Chen, the deputy head of the Chinese Propaganda department, said: “By November … 350 million pieces of harmful information, including text, pictures and videos, had been deleted [from the Chinese internet].” Some Chinese users of Twitter, the micro-blogging website, claimed they could already no longer download Skype, but the service appeared to be working normally in Shanghai.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which published the ruling earlier this month, has not set a timetable for implementing the new VoIP restrictions. When it does, Skype will probably be barred. “[This] is expected to make services like Skype unavailable in the country,” the Communist Party’s official paper said.

Experts said the rules would be difficult, if not impossible, to enforce, since Chinese internet users could simply download versions of Skype or other internet phone call programs from websites outside China. So undoubtedly, the measure has been met with criticism, as some argue it clearly results in complete Chinese control of the market. “It’s ridiculous, VoIP is a popular technology worldwide” said Beijing University professor of posts and telecommunications Kan Kaili. He went on to say he doubts Skype will actually be banned.

“It is very unlikely that they will manage to shut Skype down,” said Professor Kan Kaili. “Skype is the market leader, but there is also MSN and Gmail Talk. The children of Chinese government officials, who are studying abroad, use these services to call home, so I do not think anyone is going to cut the lines. Even if they take a strict approach, such as getting local operators to block the broadband services of people who use Skype, people will still find a way around it,” he added.

If the move to block Skype and similar sites succeeds, it could be incredibly damaging. China is easily the largest market for Internet phone service in the world, and it was announced yesterday that its number of Internet users rocketed to 450 million over 2010 – an increase of 20 percent from last year.

Since 2007, Skype has partnered with Chinese mobile Internet carrier TOM Online to offer a Chinese-language version of its client software. The joint TOM-Skype site however is still available (as of writing) to users outside of China.

At any rate, once in effect the new regulations would only ban Skype from making calls from a computer to a landline, and PC-exclusive VoIP activity could still be available.  It’s possible that Skype’s recent addition of video calling via iOS devices was the last straw with the Chinese government and motivation to reissue the nearly three year old ban. Whether or not it’s permanent this time is another matter. Regulators may simply want to give homegrown businesses a chance to develop an answer to Skype’s latest iPhone update.

The new version of Skype app brings the long awaited video conferencing for iPhone and iPod Touch. Users of the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and fourth generation iPod Touch will now be able to video chat with Skype users on both PC and Mac computers (Linux computers, too!), along with users on other iOS devices. No word as to when the video calling feature will arrive on Android devices.

What’s New in Skype (Version 3.0) App For iOS?

- Make Skype to Skype video calls on WiFi and 3G*
- Call Skype desktop users (Mac OS X or Windows) and other iPhone users.
- Two-way video calls supported on iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 4th gen.
- Receive only video supported on iPad and iPod touch 3rd gen, with no camera.
- Make video calls in portrait and landscape.
- Skype video calling requires iOS 4.0 or above.

The new video conferencing feature works between capable iOS devices as well as desktop machines. Skype is a free download on the App Store. The new Skype app is also able to send and receive calls from its traditional desktop application. Thus, you can be video chatting with your sister while on the train. Skype 3.0 for iOS supports both portrait and landscape mode.

Users can place Skype video calls with their iPhone over both a 3G data connection* or WiFi. The new Skype for iPhone app is compatible with the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPod touch 4th generation with i0S 4.0 or above. Video receiving capabilities are available on the iPod touch 3rd generation and iPad. Calls can be made between devices using the new Skype for iPhone app and desktops including Skype for Windows 4.2 and above, Skype for Mac 2.8 and above, Skype for Linux and ASUS Videophone.

This is a positive development for a company that has been embarrassed by a total collapse of its network that lasted over 24 hours last week. Skype explained that last week’s extended downtime was due to overloaded servers that sent out delayed messages that were improperly processed due to a bug in an older version of Skype for Windows.

Such calls have previously been a rare treat for aid workers, who in addition to enduring harsh climates and the threat of violence also struggle with loneliness when they are catapulted at short notice into emergency situations where regular cell phone networks, let alone landlines, don’t reach.

“It’s a technology breakthrough in terms of what we can do with Skype, because we’re doing this at a very low bandwidth,” Bates told The Associated Press. The regular version of Skype is banned from some of UNHCR’s field stations because it is too data hungry, competing with mission-critical applications for bandwidth over precious satellite and microwave connections.

The new version — actually based on an older incarnation of Skype that is now obsolete — can carry voice calls over Internet hookups no faster than the dial-up connections used in the early 1990s.

Bates said the slimmed-down version is being rolled out to more than 1,000 aid workers in places such as Afghanistan, Darfur and Somalia, where war and dire poverty mean U.S.-style broadband connections are rare. In future, the software also could be made available to the refugees assisted by UNHCR, as well as to other aid agencies, he said, though there are no plans to release it publicly.

Antoine Bertout, who worked on the project with four other Skype volunteers, said engineers took a “back to basics” approach with the software, making many of the newer features dependent on the connection speed and stripping out others such as desktop sharing.

“Skype will recognize whether the bandwidth is strong enough to place a video call,” he said, adding that the aid worker version also opts out of Skype’s peer-to-peer system, which normally requires users to share their bandwidth with others.

One of those testing the software was UNHCR technician Sylvian Tiako. Speaking over a fragile but audible Skype line from Goma, in eastern Congo, Tiako said he had successfully used the application to call friends and family in west Africa, Europe and North America.

Luxembourg-based Skype said it also would help UNHCR’s fundraising efforts, by showing banner ads to users in the United States, Australia and Japan. The refugee agency has embraced technologies such as Google Maps, YouTube and Twitter in recent years to showcase its work helping tens of millions of people fleeing war, poverty and persecution.

Here is how it works:

• To use this new service, you need to be a user of Jajah (and of course Twitter).

• And the person receiving the voice twitter call has to be following the person making the call.

However, here is what Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group said on this new service.

“Essentially, this is adding Skype-like functionality to Twitter. If this catches on, further developments might include the ability for Twitterers to call all of their followers, which would certainly make it a lot easier for them to stream their every thought and activity without even having to take the trouble to type. That will certainly be something to behold and perhaps a sign of the apocalypse.”

Interestingly enough while all of this is happening, earlier this week, Vivox, a Boston based Video Game Voice enabling Company hinted that they have apparently teamed up with FaceBook and currently designing an application that should empower FaceBook users (both individuals and groups) to have voice chats online. And this revolutionary apps is being designed to add a new dimension to online communication and meeting.

I don’t want to be judgmental just yet and doubt the effectiveness of these 2 services that are going to be rolled out from the 2 giant names in Social Media – Twitter and FaceBook. But the timing of their release makes me feel as if suddenly the Social Media have decided to shift their focus from text and raring to go Vocal! However, the time would say if these new services could woo the users and prove to be the must-have features for the Social Media junkies. What do you think? Do you think that voice is going to be the new face of social media?