[asterisk-biz] Free DIDs

[Nitzan Kon]

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.

As far as arbitrage goes - there's plenty of examples to
go around:
1. There used to be a service that would let you call places
like Europe (land lines) "for free" after you called their
US number. The US number was located in a rural area so their
reciprocal compensation was FAR more than the cost of the
calls to Europe. In most cases it's the caller's carrier
that had to pay the bill because the caller was on a calling
plan. Thing about calling plans is though- if enough users
artificially call higher cost numbers, the whole plan will
end up having to go up in price.

2. Another example is "free" party lines, "free" conference 
rooms, and other such services locating themselves virtually 
in a rural area. While the user thinks it's free - their 
carrier has to pay higher termination costs to those areas.

#1 got shut down at some point in time I think due to a
lawsuit. #2 is still going on.

-- Nitzan
http://www.future-nine.com
http://www.comparevoipproviderrates.com

--- On Sat, 8/15/09, Ken Rice <krice at rmktek.com> wrote:

> Here's a good example... A couple of
> small LECs have gone to answering all
> calls into their DIDs to play back messages that would
> normally be in band
> "this number is disconnected" or "this number has been
> changed" type things
> in early media... What does this mean to you? Well as the
> consumer calling
> these numbers long distance you just paid for a call, as
> your originating
> LEC they get stuck paying the recip-comp for a call that
> should never have
> been answered in the first place and in most cases signaled
> as a dead number
> before the circuit was even set up
> 
> 
> > From: <mroberts1818 at gmail.com>
> > Reply-To: <mroberts1818 at gmail.com>,
> Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk
> > Discussion <asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com>
> > Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 02:58:33 +0000
> > To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk
> Discussion
> > <asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com>
> > Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] Free DIDs
> > 
> > Some examples of ridiculous, frivolous and destructive
> arbitrage
> > opportunities?
> > 
> > 
> > Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Alex Balashov <abalashov at evaristesys.com>
> > 
> > Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:07:48
> > To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk
> > Discussion<asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com>
> > Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] Free DIDs
> > 
> > 
> > David Knell wrote:
> >> On Thu, 2009-08-13 at 05:42 -0400, Alex Balashov
> wrote:
> >>> Don't know about the UK, but any area in the
> US with deregulated local
> >>> loop and higher than average access charges is
> generally happy to take
> >>> inbound.
> >> 
> >> (Un)fortunately, things work a little bit
> differently in the UK - the
> >> access charges are the same no matter who and/or
> where you are..
> > 
> > Fortunately.
> > 
> > Intercarrier compensation in the US is so, so broken,
> and the FCC is so
> > afraid to fix it.  It opens up a wealth of
> ridiculous, frivolous and
> > destructive arbitrage opportunities and ways to game
> the system.
> > 
> > -- 
> > Alex Balashov
> > Evariste Systems
> > Web    : http://www.evaristesys.com/
> > Tel    : (+1) (678) 954-0670
> > Direct : (+1) (678) 954-0671
> > Mobile : (+1) (678) 237-1775
> > 
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