Are there restrictions to IP telephony in countries where the government controls internet/phones?

The use of IP telephony outside of the United States is a very complicated area for discussion. Many of the conditions that businesses are accustomed to in the US are quite different in other parts of the world and individual countries within each region. Some national carriers do not interfere with VoIP traffic whereas others (such as in the Middle East and Belize in Central America) have blocked VoIP. Additionally, government regulators are still thinking in terms of 20th century telephony and have not evolved into understanding a packet switched virtual service with no circuits or physical points of demarcation and tethering. They will eventually but it will still take years. A larger concern is the lack of broadband Internet access availability. Without broadband, VoIP is quite problematic. For example, whereas the broadband penetration in the US is estimated at greater than 65%, the highest percent of broadband penetration in Latin America is in Chile with 17%. For each country, all of these issues are different. For example, in Argentina, you can have a Buenos Aires telephone number that rings a softphone client on your laptop, but you are technically in violation of the law if you leave Buenos Aires! As a consultant, I suggest you identify the specific countries of interest to you, identify the Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSPs) that serve those countries, and determine if there are issues that you may face. If you are using a private network, such as MPLS, your issues may be less than if you are using public Internet. As you can see, this is hardly a simple question with simple answers! I hope that helps.