Interesting People mailing list archives
Re: A Service Message From FreeConference.com
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2007 10:45:45 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: John Levine <johnl () iecc com> Date: March 17, 2007 10:33:47 AM EDT To: dave () farber net Cc: jordan pollack <pollack () brandeis edu> Subject: Re: [IP] Re: A Service Message From FreeConference.com
Isn't there a piece of the story missing? I'm guessing that FreeConference makes its money on receiving some kind of origin/ destination settlements from the carriers, which might be REAL money from the wireless guys and the phonebooth guys. Anybody have any idea how free conferencing works as a business model, (since there is no google text ads read aloud while you wait for the calls:)
Of course, the little telcos split the terminating fee with FreeConference. There are lots of other companies doing plain call arbitrage -- you call their access number, then you can dial out to any of a large number of countries where their wholesale cost is less than the split. This is a godsend for cell phone users who would otherwise pay a over dollar a minute to call countries in Europe where the wholesale cost is under a penny. Beyond the doubletalk from the large telcos, this reminds us how broken the USF system is. Its goal, to provide affordable phone service for people in rural areas, is reasonable, but the way it's implemented, by arcane surcharges placed on some phone calls, is nuts. It's left over from 80 years ago when long distance was used only by businesses and the rich. It would make a lot more sense simply to pay telcos to serve high cost customers with a monthly lump sum based on how remote they are. But since the same big telcos, particularly Qwest, are all on the current USF gravy train, good luck getting that to happen. Regards,John Levine, johnl () iecc com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, Mayor "More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly. ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/@now Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
Current thread:
- A Service Message From FreeConference.com David Farber (Mar 16)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: A Service Message From FreeConference.com David Farber (Mar 16)
- Re: A Service Message From FreeConference.com David Farber (Mar 16)
- Re: A Service Message From FreeConference.com David Farber (Mar 17)
- Re: A Service Message From FreeConference.com David Farber (Mar 17)
- Re: A Service Message From FreeConference.com David Farber (Mar 17)
- Re: A Service Message From FreeConference.com David Farber (Mar 17)
- Re: A Service Message From FreeConference.com David Farber (Mar 17)