[asterisk-biz] MagicJack

[Trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Fri, 2008-03-21 at 04:29 -0400, Matthew Rubenstein wrote:
> 	Anyone know any more details? How do they offer $20:year, when most
> VoIP competitors charge at least $15-35:month? Are they using Asterisk
> for infrastructure - any thing more than maybe just voicemail?

I dont know this specifically, but some stuff to look for.  I have seen
unlimited calls advertised but it was voip only.  One advertised it in
such a way to indicate that you could call the pstn, but in reality you
had to buy their ATA (at several times the normal price) which has both
FXO/FXS jacks and plug in your regular landline.  And for this they
charged a subscription fee.  

"unlimited" is also the most abused term in the industry.  I have seen
people advertise unlimited and mean fewer than 2000 minutes a month.
That works out to just over 1 hour per day in the course of a month, or
1/24 of what unlimited really is (1/48 if you count the fact they give
you 2 channels to use).

Many advertise "unlimited" when they mean "flat rate" and regulators
arent doing anything to stop this.  Personally I think its false
advertising to say unlimited and define that as "with limits", but its
common place.

The other end is that a couple years ago skype offered $15 unlimited
calling to US48, then increased it to I think $30/year.  I dont know if
they still offer this price, but basically its a "well funded company
trying to steal customers".  


So if you do look into this company a bit more you may want to see if
they are doing these things, and if so does that explain the hows and
whys of their pricing regime.
-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
Belfast +44 28 9099 6461        US +1 516 687 5200
http://www.trxtel.com the phone company that pays you!