[asterisk-biz] Free DIDs

[Dovid Bender]

> Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:38:06 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Nitzan Kon <nk3569 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] Free DIDs
> To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion
> <asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com>
> Message-ID: <951417.54565.qm at web50703.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> 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.

AT&T didn't want to pay them because they said that they were not 
terminating the call and they were just passing it on. They now has set up 
(or when we met them they were setting up) a new system where the calls 
would be free and the FCC said they were allowed to do it and AT&T would 
have to pay.