Political representatives of the Solomon Islands and the Cook Islands plan to travel to Dublin next week to urge the Government not to impose a ban on all phone calls made to the islands, writes Jamie Smyth, Technology Reporter.
The European Union ambassadors of the two small South Pacific states are seeking meetings with the Government and the telecoms regulator, which this week decided to block calls to the islands and 11 other States.
In interviews yesterday with The Irish Times, their ambassadors to the EU said the ban would have a negative impact on the island economies. They also warned that they had not ruled out taking legal action against Ireland to challenge the ban on telephone traffic, which has been proposed to prevent internet frauds.
From October 4th telecoms firms have been directed by the Commission for Communication Regulation (ComReg) to block direct-dial calls to 13 states - most of which are based in the South Pacific - to prevent "modem hijacking", whereby hackers based offshore re-route a computer user's link to the internet.
ComReg said it was taking the "exceptional" action in the interest of protecting consumers from an upsurge in these frauds.
But the proposed ban has caused consternation among the 13 States named in the decision.
Mr Todd McClay, ambassador of the Cook Islands to the EU, said the decision was "excessive".
"I don't know if the action taken by ComReg is contrary to World Trade Organisation rules but I am looking at it... We have also been offered legal advice stating that it (ComReg) may not have the authority to do this."
He said a ban could hurt the islands tourism and fisheries industries, and he urged the Irish Government to take alternative measures to protect consumers.
He said he was planning to come to Dublin next Thursday to meet Government officials as part of a delegation representing the countries affected.
Mr Robert Sisilo, the Solomon Islands ambassador to the EU, said he did not think it was legally acceptable for Ireland to block calls to the island. He said he would make representations to the Government next week.
Auto-dialling fraud, or modem hijacking, enables a fraudster to install software on a consumer's machine without their knowledge and change their internet dial-up settings. Consumers can unwittingly fall victim to the scam when they visit unsafe websites which install the software. This software then redirects the phone link to the internet to far-flung locations, forcing users to incur charges of up to €5 per minute instead of the typical 1 to 5 cents.