I’m still trying to figure out how this works, and by the time I do the service may be gone. Regardless, Iowa based AllFreeCalls is letting people make phone calls to many foreign countries for free. Or rather, for the cost of a call to Iowa. You call the AllFreeCalls phone number, which is 712-858-8094, and at the prompt dial 011, the country code you are calling and the number you wish to call. The call is made at no charge to the user. A list of supported countries and prefixes is here, and the company says they are adding ten more countries in the coming weeks.
Here’s my understanding of how this works: the founder created his own telephone company in Iowa. Iowa is apparently the only state taking advantage of an FCC kickback scheme that gives telco’s a portion of the fees generated from every inbound call to an Iowa number. So when you call the AllFreeCalls phone number, a portion of any long distance fees you are paying go to the company. The kickback is apparently authorized via the Universal Service Fund. These kickbacks are enough on average to more than cover the international outbound calling fees.
I expect to revise every sentence in the above paragraph as I work this out more completely (and then call my congressional representative), but that’s my current understanding after an email discussion with the founder.
I don’t know if calls originating outside of the U.S. will work, although I assume they will. I’m not sure if that would save the caller much in fees, though, v. calling directly to their destination.
Update: Lots of good insights in the comments, and I recommend reading this post as well. If anyone has read Catch 22 - this makes about as much sense as Milo’s scheme where he bought eggs for 7 cents and sold them at a profit for 5 cents.
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Sigh. No Ecuador on the list either …
Snapvine.com uses this same loophole for their voice messaging product. Notice the area code they use doesn’t match their location (e.g. Seattle). Haven’t checked to see if it is in Iowa though.
Since it was set up before the law is changed, I am hoping that this person can continue offering the service!
Just tried to use it o call Australia - 61 code - got a message that calls to that destination is not possible.
I wonder how many countries listed on their web site actually work…
Now I understand why IPKall (washington state) must work, giving away free DID’s that they’ll terminate to your SIP for free. Anytime someone calls you, they actually get paid. That would be an even better gimmick than free internaitonal calls cause your termination cost is just your bandwidth.
Hi Michael. Nice article. Like other industries, people in telecom are always finding new ways to make money take advantage. This kind of scheme changes the way things work or are ruled. When someone starts getting hurt (financially speaking), I bet rules will change. It doesn’t mean the scheme will end, but it will change. While 10 people think how to creat strong rules, there are 10.000 thinking how to take advantage of it.
Anyway, I got curious about the Milo’s scheme you mentioned, but I couldn’t find exactly what it is and how it works. Could you please tell me or let me know where can I find it?
Thanks
André
I found a hack for AllFreeCalls.net and its posted here: http://voipguides.blogspot.com/
in addition, there are more reviews about such FREE calls providers on this blog.
Damn! I wish Iraq was on that list… gotta tell them extremists to KNOCK IT OFF! (before I nuke you!)
You can read the original hack for AllfreeCalls.net here:
http://voipguides.blogspot.com.....dwide.html
Hi i also just tried it from the UK (via Skype!) - and it does work! But only with UK landlines so far.. like few ppl above!!
As a former VOIP guy, I will briefly comment on this:
1. This works thanks to the fact that technology innovates faster than your congressmen can correctly spell “Skype”(the only guy seems using technology a bit better is Mark Foley, sending salacious SMS and instant messages to his pages, and getting canned, rightfully so. But I digress)—i.e., arcane telecom regulations bring money to clever entrepreneurs.
2. Whether a country will be on the free-call list is decided solely by the termination cost to that country vis-a-vis the profit margin it gets from the inter-carrier compensation(and other subsidies) minus his operational cost. So if a call to freaking Ethiopia costs $0.25 wholesale, you bet that it will not be free, until Martians roaming earth in year 2500, and calling home with an apple iPhone.
3. This free-call thing will not be here very long, if it gains critical mass(now a given because it is on tech-crunch:-)), and finally begins to annoying your congressional representatives from their busy ear-marking activities.
4. As far as I see, the benefits are most pronounced for the Chinese, HongKongese(is this a word?), Taiwanese, Korean, Singaporeans, and some western Europeans who currently resides in the states, who actually can call the iowa number with Skype or cell phone free minutes to connect to their parties in those countries. But european mobile will not be on free-call ever, reason is #2 above.
5. With all the calls to these Iowa numbers, it will get harder to connect, because you will be hearing a lot of “This number is full” messages. So users needs to be more diligent to find newer numbers to avoid the crowd. There is another number 712-945-0416 which I used a couple of times, and it seems to be working well without busy prompts.
So all in all, enjoy while it lasts.
Interesting article I just saw on yahoo, discussing some of the charges:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....surcharges
I’ve tried this three times in the past 3 days with calls to the UK. Every single time the call failed — usually the quality of the connection was so bad and so full of echos that I just hung up and dialed again with another service. Too bad — I had been using Jajah but their site got updated and became rather painful to use…
Another Free International gateway to add to the mix:
(712) 945-4444.
http://www.freephonecallz.com
It seems there must be a business model here after all as I think this is the third gateway I found. Looks like these guys are going to try and convert you to a premium service. System must be new as I’ve tried it a few times and no busy signals. Lets see how long that lasts.
hi,
Itried this service. Its not working. Anyone can help? I found this website http://free-internet-phone-calls.net which they try to explain better how the system works. i think Jajah is the real solution.
.
This is an interesting development in the US. I live in the UK and have been using a similar service which allows me to make ‘free’ calls from my contract cellphone. I get 750 minutes a month (most of which I don’t use for domestic calls (it was a cheap plan so I went for it!)) and using these dial an access number (07744788888) followed by the international number. Works to a wide variety of destinations, although not generally cellphones.
The service I use is: http://www.dialabroad.co.uk/mobileplus
There are quite a few out there though.
John
I wish Peru was on the list.
I will be in Ireland from the US for a few days. I purchased a tri-band phone for the trip, and I will purchase a SIM card at the airport in Dublin. What is the least expensive way for me to call home? Thank-you for any help and suggestions.
I will be travelling from my home in Florida to Ireland and I am looking for the least expensive way to call the US.
Old Skool stuff. But nice as long as it takes. I would say use it as long as it is available. Hopefully their line capacity is sufficient!
They make some money from incoming calls (based on a kickback) and they subsidise the the termination for calls to fixed numbers in Europe etc. only some mobiel numbers are supported like Singapore where mobile termination is also very low.
With this service I still have to pay for the international call to Iowa! So it’s a US only solution… It’s not economical to use the service outside the US. Right?
Personally I’ll think the future is in the mobile-2-community businessmodels, like Nimbuzz, http://www.nimbuzz.com, is offering. Global mobile calls at local rates. (International) Groupcalls straight from your mobile. Free and integrated mobile IM. And free Text services. These are sustainable businessmodels you can use if this service lost its momentum.
Cheers!
You can also do it! See my blog at http://flatplanetphone.com/wordpress/?p=31
Tried both cell & landline for Korea (South Korea) its call to this type of # is not allowed!!!???
pretty disturbing to see legions of righteous fanboys gesticulating about this…
when it was fully detailed TWO MONTHS prior at Saunders…
aptly shown in comments 8, 16, 44.
Hey, what should I know, in fing Havana? Isn’t Pork simply the decline and fall of the hoaxed Democratic albeit NWO Imperialism of “Greed Gone Wild!”
Why has Futurephone and Ophone shut down? Service in the UK (like http://www.dialabroad.co.uk/mobileplus, http://www.call2abroad.com, etc. etc.) have been running for many months or even years. Surely competition in the US is good for consumers. Know what I mean?
As I wrote on my blog - http://flatplanetphone.com/wordpress/?p=40
They received a cease and desist order
abc
visit http://voipsms.blogspot.com for free calls
It was good while it lasted. Knowing it probably wouldn’t last, I used it to the utmost. Oh well, back to using skype.
just got off chatting with pat the owner of this company. he’s gonna blog on this issue at his blog (http://blog.roam4free.ie/) and probably post some comment here as well regarding this issue. but the short story is it’s a combination of technical problems (load capacity expansion needed) and legal problems (dealing with a 2 million $$ lawsuit from our good neighborly friends over at AT&T). he said they’re getting sued at every step of the process… but the good news is he said they got 1/2 dozen engineers working on the service and should be back up shortly. keep an eye on this one, the big boys don’t like to see the kickback service companies proliferate. monopolies are good for business.
Thanks for the update. Even if this one goes down, I am sure there will be more companies poping up offering same services until the loop hole is fixed.
http://t1-lines.net
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no uganda on the list whats up with that?!!! i guess we just have to wait for more competitors to come in to the game.for now still nothing beats calling cards.
Hi
I found Uganda on http://www.reallyjustdial.co.uk . by the way I have tried a lot of calling cards and living aboard I am always ringing back home. I have had a look at the rates and they are quiet similar to the service I use at http://www.reallyjustdial.co.uk. The only problem I have with calling cards is that there is always a connection charge, which eats always from the minutes you have on the card, and secondly it cuts off after a certain time, so re-dialing, hence and new connection charge. Thirdly the line quality on most of the cards not so good
Nevertheless, exceptions are there. I have found it easier to put up phone and dial the access numbers I get from http://www.reallyjustdial.co.uk
Regards
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Gizmocall, lets you call to international landlines for free for 10 min a day, 3 min duration of one call. A great way to say hello and ask about weather.
http://nationwideLD.com
Compare long distance companies and plans for home, residential, small business, International calls!
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good
This service is good. For all those based in the UK who want this service have a look at http://www.planet-numbers.co.uk who offer very cheap international calling. They also offer 0845, 0800, 0844 and 03 numbers for businesses looking to expand. Hope this helps.
I am surprised long distance call companies are not screaming already
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