Skype in hot water in France after failing to register
![France's telecommunications monitor Arcep said Tuesday it had asked prosecutors to launch a probe into Microsoft subsidiary Skype for failing to register as a telecommunications firm despite several reminders. France's telecommunications monitor Arcep asks prosecutors to launch a probe into Skype for failing to register](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800a/2013/francestelec.jpg)
France's telecommunications monitor Arcep said Tuesday it had asked prosecutors to launch a probe into Microsoft subsidiary Skype for failing to register as a telecommunications firm despite several reminders.
Under French law, a telecommunications operator does not need administrative authorisation but only has to make a "prior declaration," Arcep said. However failure to comply with the law is a criminal offence.
Arcep said it had asked Skype to declare itself "an electronic communications operator" but it had failed to do so.
An Arcep statement said Skype should register as a telecommunications service as it provided "French Internet users with services that allow them to make phone calls to or from a device connected to the Internet... in France or elsewhere in the world."
As a regular telecoms service provider, Skype would have to undertake certain obligations, including routing emergency calls and allow legal wire-tapping.
The latest move comes at a bad time for Microsoft. The European Union fined Microsoft 561 million euros ($730 million) earlier this month for failing to provide customers with a choice of Internet browser, as promised.
(c) 2013 AFP