According to the latest Bell Sends, which you can get here http://www.usfk.mil/usfk/bellsends/index.asp the deadline to get a US based VoIP has been extended until 21 June.

Can someone clarify the "grandfather clause"? In the original BSM, it appeared that anyone who had service prior to a certain date would be able to retain their service and that anyone arriving in country would have to aquire a korean offerred service. Now it appears that this "clause" means that anyone who has service is free to SWITCH to the korean offerred service.
?.

Pretty plain to me....if you get vonage or whatever american company VOIP prior to June 21st 2007 you'll be grandfathered and beable to keep what ever VOIP you have.

After June 21st you'll have to see AAFES to to aquire a VOIP service..

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They must find it difficult...

Those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority. --Gerald Massey

This is a STUPID idea, not to mention there is no way they can regulate it for people living off post. Why is the USFK leadership so quick to give in to crap like this?

Did they not think that some people will already have service established in the USA? Those services are DESIGNED to be globally portable. It is not our problem if the Korean telephone people were not forward thinking enough to get on the VoIP train 18 months ago. Sorry to say, but that is the way business works in a free market, you either keep up or get run over by the guy who is. In this case they just went a cried to USFK and got their way... STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!!!

So if I sign up for Vonage right now...before 21 Jun...here in the states, PCS to Korea, I should be covered by the clause....??? Hmmm
Now what happens if I "sell" that Vonage account to someone that is inbound to Korea next year...still should be covered by the clause.

Semi-related to this thread is a concern by the ROK gov't on how we (USFK) spend the ROK gov't supplied money to support our activities in USFK. Like said above...the ROK telcom missed the train on the VoIP. They can really believe that they can block certain IP addresses. Think the USFK leadership needs to pony up and flex some muscle and pick which battle they need to fight. I am sure some Lt Col in Yongson bucking for his next promotion decided that he should see if the ROK should regulate our phone calls. Stuff like this just make USFK a political nightmare.

We have SOFA for a reason...
The USFK took our E-6 and below out of driving a car. Hell, most E-6s are more mature than O-2s! Why do they get to drive?!
USFK sets our curfew. Yet EUCOM doesn't have curfew.


With the politics involved with amending the SOFA and getting cheap contracts (new internet connectivity) into bases/camps takes forever. In the long run, it is the quality of life that is taking a beating. But yet USFK leadership claim they are trying to improve it. Improve it hell, you are making it worse with the red tape and politics! Love to clock someone's bell!!

What do you think will happen if people bring over their own VoIP anyway after the deadline?

I give it about a week after the blockage comes into affect and some techhead figures out a work around.

Wonder if the Army has even given notice to Vonage and other VoIP service providers that they are being shafter by the US Army...???

Wonder if Vonage would like to pay off the ROK gov't...errr..I mean become a registered VoIP provider in Korea.

I'm headed to Kunsan next week myself for a tour. I signed up for Vonage earlier this month and shipped over my router. I guessing because I have signed up prior to 21 Jun, I should be good. What does everybody else think?

Calling it a "blockage" is a bit of a misnomer.

No one is going to block VOIP service or usage. It's simply a matter of the ROK gov't saying Vonage can't conduct business in the ROK. But this is business conducted on the internet, and the internet knows no bounds.

They would literally have to be catch you using a Vonage router in your residence. And I seriously doubt the ROK gov't is going to go on a witch hunt for Vonage routers anytime soon.

I wouldn't worry about it - and I'd use my Vonage service all day, every day.