The issue of Skype, and its legal status, has become a major talking point among the UAE’s residents since it went offline again last year.

This week, Dubai’s senior government official overseeing smart cities and new technologies called the situation “annoying,” and said she was hopeful that the ban would be lifted soon on the video and voice call chat application.

According to Gulf News Skype was “one of the essentials of life,” and it being banned, despite Dubai positioning itself as one of the most connected, technological cities in the world, was “annoying, for sure.”
“Not only [is it essential] for smart cities, but also for individuals,” she said.
Bin Bishr was speaking on the sidelines of the Future Blockchain Summit in Dubai.

Earlier in the week, Microsoft confirmed to Gulf News that it was in talks with the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) to lift the ban on Skype.
Local Arabic newspaper Al Ittihad quoted Hamad Obaid Al Mansouri, director general of the TRA, as saying that the TRA was in talks with Microsoft and Apple regarding Skype and FaceTime (another video chat application, by Apple). He emphasised the need to maintain a strong relationship with the tech companies, at a time when their investments in the UAE are growing.
“We are working very closely with our telcos [du and etisalat] and the authorities, the regulators, to understand how to ease this component,” and very soon, Bin Bishr added, she hoped to have “good news.”

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