Spam over Internet telephony (SPIT) may become the latest information age nuisance as the voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) era arrives, say industry players.
While SPIT is not a problem yet because there are few VOIP users, the industry is preparing for what could prove to be a worse problem than e-mail spam, with no real solutions in sight.
"SPIT is not a problem now, here or overseas, but it is a matter of 'when` rather than 'whether`," says Tellumat business development manager Neill Friedman. "I am feeling pessimistic enough to say that SPIT`s advent could be as short as three weeks following the widespread introduction of VOIP."
A number of Internet service providers and other companies with value-added network service licences are gearing up to provide commercial VOIP services from 1 February, when communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri`s telecoms liberalisation comes into effect.
SPIT would operate similar to the way e-mail spam works, and could allow a voice-recorded message of about 30 seconds to be sent to thousands of voice IP addresses within seconds.
Dave Gale, Storm business development manager, says companies looking at implementing VOIP technology should bear in mind the potential problem SPIT could pose.
"Once a person`s VOIP numbers are published and harvested, it could become a serious issue that could raise all sorts of questions again about privacy and security," he says.
Initially most South African VOIP providers are expected to use the H323 standard devised by the International Telecommunications Union.
This is considered a fairly rigid voice system and is not likely to encourage SPIT, Gale says.
However, once the market moves to implementing the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), a more flexible multimedia standard, then the potential use for SPIT increases.
"SIP is not considered to be robust enough for most commercial applications just yet; however, the advantages it offers makes it a matter of time before it does, and then we will definitely have a problem," says Friedman.
Tellumat has investigated a number of existing technologies designed to counter SPIT, but has found none that do the job really well, he adds.
"For the time being, a company would rather receive SPIT than miss a potential business opportunity."
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