A local arm of China Telecom, the country's biggest fixed-line telecommunications operator, has moved to block access to a computer-to-telephone call service offered internationally by Skype, the European internet telephony company.

Skype does not offer the fee-paying “SkypeOut” service to mainland Chinese users of its software and the action against it by the China Telecom unit has not affected the European company's free computer-to-computer telephone service.