Categorized | Technology, VoIP, Voice 2.0 |

Vote This Post DownVote This Post Up (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Loading ...

Tags : , , , , ,

The End of Free?

Posted on 13 June 2008



If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Truphone is no longer offering their FREE calls, after having had this options for many months. Mobivox, announced that calls between Mobivox users are no longer FREE, too.

All that said, is a new trend starting? Are we finally in front of the end of the FREElosophy?

On the contrary, companies like Rebtel caught this opportunity immediately and issued a press release where they state that, unlike TruEphone and Mobivox, their service can still be used for FREE, with the “smart call” option.

Unfortunately there are two weak points here. First, this is not free. That option can be used if both users are calling a local number from their phone, calls that they are paying (not to Rebtel, but to their local telecom provider). From Rebtel’s website:

Please note: You and your friend will pay your phone companies for the local part of the call. The international connection is free!

Secondly, that method is not certainly the most usable, they surely have other methods much more suitable for a wide general usage. However, we have to say that Rebtel’s CEO honestly admits this in the press release:

“It true that most of our customers choose our paid service,” said Hjalmar Winbladh, Rebtel co-founder and CEO.  “And we don’t deny that our free calling service requires people to jump through a hoop or two.  But if free is what matters to you, then give us a try. It’s really not hard to do – in fact, we think it’s kind of fun.”

Anyway, customers will tell their opinion by using this or that service. In the meantime, I praise any VoIP company that start making users pay for their services. It’s a clear equation: someone offers you a service, you have to pay.

 

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

This post was written by:

Luca Filigheddu - who has written 1966 posts on LucaFiligheddu.com.

Luca is currently CEO at Abbeynet, a company specialized in VoIP and Web 2.0.

Contact the author

Viewing 1 Comment

 

Trackbacks

(Trackback URL)

  • Conference

    June 13, 2008 at 5:02 pm

    [...] James Body says: Jun 13, 10:59 AM (GMT -05:00) Yes - and Luca has had a ...

  • VoIP News » Blog Archive » Friday Links: Bye to Free VoIP?

    June 15, 2008 at 6:15 am

    [...] And is free VoIP going the way of the dodo? Read about services that are canceling their free VoIP ...

  • Sponsor DEMO Events

    June 15, 2008 at 8:07 am

    [...] dice?June 13, 2008, 2:20 pmDiriO da LoucAJune 13, 2008, 2:20 pmThe End of Free?June 13, 2008, 2:42 [...]

close Reblog this comment
blog comments powered by Disqus

Site Sponsors

Site Sponsors

Recent Readers

What I'm Doing...

  • the new Google Reader desktop app, Scoop, crashed a thousand times on my Macbook. I know others are reporting the same..beta? no, pre-Alpha! 8 hrs ago
  • just received an invitation for Google Friend Connect... will add it to my blog in the following days, it looks promising 8 hrs ago
  • @planeteye I hate flash home pages... I want to get straight to the point, without having to wait 15 seconds to let the page load in reply to planeteye 9 hrs ago
  • More updates...

License & Networks

  • Creative Commons License
    This blog is published under a Creative Commons license.
  • Translate

    Translate to EnglishÜbersetzen Sie zum Deutsch/GermanПереведите к русскому/RussianΜεταφράστε στα ελληνικά/GreekVertaal aan het Nederlands/Dutchترجمة الى العربية/Arabic中文翻译/Chinese Traditional
    中文翻译/Chinese Simplified한국어에게 번역하십시오/Korean日本語に翻訳しなさい /JapaneseTraduza ao Português/PortugueseTraduca ad Italiano/ItalianTraduisez au Français/FrenchTraduzca al Español/Spanish

    Sponsors