Sad to say, VoIP (voice over IP) services are being blocked in some Gulf countries. For example, smartphone app Viber is currently blocked in UAE. Saudi Arabia also blocked Viber in June 2013. Saudi's Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) said Viber did not meet their requirements. On the other hand, all VOIP services are illegal in Kuwait. But there's somehow a grey area on their rules. Nevertheless, many people in the Persian Gulf are still able to effectively unblock VOIP using a VPN.
So far, VPN (Virtual Private Network) is still the best way to unblock sites anywhere around the world. Despite many other choices, VPNs remain to be most secured and reliable way to surf the Internet anonymously. With a trusted VPN, you can be sure that no one can easily intercept your communication, not even the strict UAE Internet police. Many people have tried other options and have used Viber in UAE successfully, but only in a very short period of time. They were blocked immediately.
The main difference between VPNs and other methods is the way how a VPN works. With any kind of VPN, your data is encrypted and very difficult to decrypt. This means you can enjoy a very level of security. VPNs, as well as the others, will assign you a new IP address to hide your real identity and location. Therefore, you can be seen as logging from another place depending on the location of the provider. But again, only VPN can provide the most secured and consistent Internet connection.
Nevertheless, you should understand that not all VPNs are the same. First of all, there are different kinds of VPN depending on the security protocols they offer. Open VPN and PPTP VPN are the two most common ones. Generally speaking, PPTP VPN is much cheaper than Open VPN. On the other hand, Open VPN has a stronger level of security and tends to be faster than PPTP VPN. Choosing a VPN to use it to unblock VOIP services in Gulf countries mainly depends on the level of security you need.
But still, not all VPN providers offering the same level of security are the same. There are free VPNs and there are the paid ones. If you will not use Viber in UAE that much, you can try a free VPN. But because you will not pay anything, prepare yourself to be bombarded with tons of advertisements. Obviously, you shouldn't also expect a good customer service for something you did not pay for. And most of all, no government in the Gulf countries will invest millions if they cannot block these free services.
With a paid VPN, you can be sure that the provider will provide better services than a free VPN. Also note that using VoIP services requires bandwidth every time you call someone anywhere in the world, including the Persian Gulf. In simple terms, bandwidth refers to how much data your Viber connection can transfer. And because VoIP is on real-time basis, bandwidth can affect the sound quality. Therefore, your premium VPN service provider should also be able to provide you a faster connection.
