Free international phonecalls (from USA only) Thread poster: Nina Engberg
| Nina Engberg United States Local time: 19:48 English to Swedish + ...
I hope that I am posting this in the right category.. I just tried this service out from my cellphone yesterday and it worked like a charm. All you need is unlimited long distance. www.futurephone.com Excerpt from website: How can I make International calls for free? Simply call one of the domestic USA phone numbers from your home, office or mobile pho... See more I hope that I am posting this in the right category.. I just tried this service out from my cellphone yesterday and it worked like a charm. All you need is unlimited long distance. www.futurephone.com Excerpt from website: How can I make International calls for free? Simply call one of the domestic USA phone numbers from your home, office or mobile phone to be connected to our gateway. Once it answers, dial in the number you want to reach. No Signup necessary Complete privacy Unlimited calls Call anywhere anytime Is it really FREE? For callers that have unlimited long distance or nationwide long distance plan’s with their cell or local service provider, yes it will be FREE. If you do not have one of those plans the international long distance portion of the call is free, and you would just pay your normal rate for a domestic long distance call. It says that you can call over 50 countries for free! ▲ Collapse | | | Kathi Stock United States Local time: 20:48 Member (2002) English to German + ...
I called to Germany today using this service. Worked perfectly fine! Kathi | | | Abraham Abukar United States Local time: 21:48 Member (2005) English to Somali + ...
I used, and it works. I hope they will add more countries to the list. | | | Service no longer available | Feb 3, 2007 |
My family in the US used this to call me for a while. Then it got harder and harder to get a connection (always busy), and now the website says the service is no longer available I wonder if it was in fact really some kind of viral marketing scheme? Or a feasibility study? | |
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tax subsidy scam? | Feb 3, 2007 |
Just read an interesting analysis of the futurephone phenomenon. I'll go ahead and post it here in case the blog post disappears someday. http://saunderslog.com/2006/10/11/whats-with-the-712-area-code/ What’s With the 712 Area Code? Ever wonder why it is that FuturePhone, Radio Handi, FreeConferenceCall, and PartyLine Connect all hav... See more Just read an interesting analysis of the futurephone phenomenon. I'll go ahead and post it here in case the blog post disappears someday. http://saunderslog.com/2006/10/11/whats-with-the-712-area-code/ What’s With the 712 Area Code? Ever wonder why it is that FuturePhone, Radio Handi, FreeConferenceCall, and PartyLine Connect all have access numbers in the 712 area code? These services all provide “free” services to you. There’s “no catch”. You just have to make a long distance call to get them. So how do these services get paid, and why are the access numbers all in Iowa? The short answer is tax subsidies. The 712 model, as I refer to it, is really a variation on the 900 number model, but financed by taxpayers. Take a low cost call, terminate on a high cost carrier, and pocket the difference. The first of these subsidies is the Universal Service Fund. Tiny Iowa, with just under 3 million residents last year, was the recipient of $86.5 million from the USF. The USF pays for maintenance and improvements to those local telephone plants, in addition to subsidizing user fees for local residents. The cost basis to provide service in those communities is dramatically lowered. The second subsidy is the tarrif itself. Most Iowa telephone companies (and there are a lot!) participate in the NECA Access Fee Pool. The NECA publishes a tarrif, which each company participating agrees to use, and then they split the revenues. The termination charges for those tarrifs are a significant source of revenue for the local phone companies. And, because they’re rural, the charges are often steeply higher than to terminate in an urban setting. In the “NFL” cities, you might expect to pay 6 to 8 tenths of a cent per minute for termination. The NECA tarrif is closer to 3 whole cents. Arbitrage the subsidized rural rate against your costs and, presto, you’ve got a winner! Let’s take FuturePhone as an example. Yesterday they announced free long distance calling to some 50 odd countries world wide. All you have to do is call 712 858 8883 (a number provided by the tiny Superior Telephone Coop in Estherville, Iowa), and then enter the international call you want to make using the standard 011 prefix. Easy peasy! So how do they make money? Since we don’t know know what FuturePhone’s actual termination costs are, let’s make an estimate. We do know that Jajah provides services to the same 50 odd countries for a retail rate of 2.5 cents per minute. So, let’s assume a 50% cost, and say that FuturePhone’s cost to terminate the call is 1.25 cents. That leaves 1.75 cents per minute to split with the folks at Superior Telephone Coop. Give them half, which leaves you 0.875 cents per minute, and you’ve got a pretty attractive proposition! It’s certainly a lot more profitable than SipPhone, charging 1 cent per minute, and probably about as profitable as Skype at 2 cents per minute. It’ll definitely keep bread on the table. Sounds great doesn’t it? Everybody wins! The good citizens of Iowa win (they’ve now got a fibre network joining up 150 of their independently owned telco’s), FuturePhone has a seemingly profitable business model, and you win by getting to make cheap overseas calls. Or do you? Well, you’re not really getting that call for free, are you… You’re still paying long distance charges, which are at minimum going to be the 1 or 2 cents per minute that Gizmo or Skype are charging. And, should you choose to make the call from a landline, you may be paying up to 10 cents per minute, depending on where you’re calling from, and what LD plan you have with your carrier. Or, you’re burning air time on your cellular phone. No matter how you cut it, it’s costing you. Makes you wonder what FuturePhone’s real value is, doesn’t it? After all, if calls are free using Skype, or Jajah, and you don’t have to make a long distance call to do it, then why bother with FuturePhone? The 712 model is a creative way to run a business, no doubt. FreeConference is a very successful example of a business using it. Today’s lesson, kids, is that even with a model as creative as the 712 model, you still have to provide real value to the customer. FuturePhone’s cheap long distance call may not be enough. ▲ Collapse | | | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Free international phonecalls (from USA only) Protemos translation business management system | Create your account in minutes, and start working! 3-month trial for agencies, and free for freelancers!
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