[Asterisk-biz] Double standards with netfone.ca.

[Michael Giagnocavo]

>> I am setting up an asterisk server/router for my mom to get her voiped
>> up. I saw this ad for CAN approx $13 a month for unlimited calling and a
>> DID + 1 month free service at netfone.ca.  That sounded great for her as
>> it works out to be about $10/mo.  During my inquiry they learned that I
>> was going to use an ASTERISK server and said that I'd had to subscribe
>> to a business plan for around $40/mo or buy their Linksys ATA Device.  
>> Really what difference does that make? It sounds more like a scam to
>> force people to buy hardware from them.
>> 
>> I guess in the future I should just say I'm using a Grandstream or
>> something.
>> 
>> Watch out.
>Stop being silly. 
>
>People who use asterisk have an ability to do far more traffic *because 
>you can be multiplexing lots of customers' traffic* than just one customer 
>with a phone handset.
>
>-alex

Um, and your point is? Their Terms of Service should handle that. If you
sign up for "unlimited" at $13 and then use 10K minutes, they need to figure
that out. Just because you "might" go over the X amount of "unlimited"
minutes is silly. 

Packet8 (I think) had something similar. If you live outside the USA, they
charge you more and put higher limits on. This is because so many people
were calling from outside the USA. While that's fine for them to go and do,
it's solely to keep up this marketing of "unlimited" minutes that aren't. 

So, yes, charging more 'cause you use Asterisk is stupid. They should charge
more for overuse, support, etc. They should not charge based on the
UserAgent. That's like software vendors that charge more cause you are
running a "server" OS. 

-Michael