[asterisk-biz] Free DIDs

[Trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Sat, 2009-08-15 at 21:38 -0700, Nitzan Kon wrote:
> We've seen the opposite lately- some toll free numbers would
> not answer the call, and instead play their IVR and let the
> user navigate the IVR for a few minutes without actually
> answering the call, so in essence they do not get billed
> for that time. Not sure if this is illegal/against regulations
> but it definitely should be above a certain limit. i.e.
> playing a "the number is unreachable, press X to page this
> person" in early media is FINE - but letting the user go
> through several minutes of IVR options in early media seems
> like abuse to me.
> 

some airlines have deals where they only answer when you transfer to a
live agent.

I know that some carriers do not like early media for bi-directional
communication.  Meteor mobile in IE gives you 60 seconds, and listen
only, you cant send dtmf, you cant speak, but you can hear.  At least
for calls to the US.  This at least lets you hear a status message free.


American Idol does their voting, or at least did, with early media only
to avoid the MOU charges.


> As far as arbitrage goes - there's plenty of examples to
> go around:
and arbitrage is *NOT* illegal, in fact the FCC said that its legal in
Audiotext v AT&T (para 35).  They said its on the carriers to charge
what it costs and not whine because they sold service for below their
cost and lost money.  Their contracts and tariffs  need to include
protections against losing money.  

All of the complaints about arbitrage is that its unfair that some
company can advertise a rate below their cost and they end up losing
money over it.  Well ya know I sold mp3 players on ebay once, and I
bought them from Best Buy which was selling them below their cost
(confirmed by the manufacturer of the mp3 player).  No one knows why
they were below cost, but they were.  I bought low and sold high.  Best
Buy never whined about losing money. 

Arbitrage would be gone if telcos charged what it cost and not below
that.  Arguments that arbitrage is wrong because it preys on those nice
fair honest telcos seem a bit dubious.  I see it as somewhat dishonest
for companies to advertise unlimited and put in their TOS "yeah there
are limits but we wont tell you what they are" or under-pricing minutes
and then complaining that people actually used the service.


-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
pgp key: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x8AE5C721