DUBAI — Skype, which offers free video, audio and text communication via the Internet, is officially banned in the United Arab Emirates, said the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.

Neither of the country’s service providers — the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat), and the Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company — had submitted a request to the authority to lift the ban, said TRA General Manager Mohamed Nasser Al-Ghanem.

“Skype is still blocked, and will remain so until the provider obtains an official license from the TRA,” he told Al-Emarat Al-Youm newspaper.

However, Etisalat said the authority had declared in 2010 that operators could offer the service without submitting requests. — Al-Arabiya