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story category Free World Dial-Up No Longer Free
Jeff Pulver announces $30 annual membership fee
10:49AM Monday Aug 11 2008 by Karl Bode
tags: prices · business · alternatives · VoIP
After twelve years of offering free inbound SIP calling, Internet telephony service Free World Dial Up will begin charging users. Jeff Pulver, co-founder of Vonage and founder of Free World Dial-Up, e-mailed the service's one million users over the weekend to inform them that the service will now come with a $30 annual fee. In a blog post, Pulver notes the $30 is just 10% of Vonage's annual unlimited service plan, but according to Pulver, FWD "will provide no services to facilitate interconnection with the telephone network" for your $30.

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Forums » Free World Dial-Up No Longer Free
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hopeflicker
Capitalism breeds greed
Premium
join:2003-04-03
Long Beach, CA

hummm

Society is now taking a step backwards.

mjuser

@rapidsys.com

Re: hummm

sorry I bought a Magic jack as a joke and it 15 dollars a year why would i pay fwd 30 a year and cant dial out to the outside world?

hmm 15 dollars or 30 hmmm tough choice. I choose 15 dollars.

Maggs
Premium
join:2002-11-29
Woodside, NY
clubs:

Services cost $

The reality is nothing in this world is free.
--
NIL ILLEGITIMUS CARBORUNDUM!
NY Tel
Premium
join:2004-04-09
Smithtown, NY
·VOIPo
·Verizon FIOS

Re: Services cost $

said by Maggs See Profile :

The reality is nothing in this world is free.
Boy is that ever so true....

cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
·Verizon FIOS

said by Maggs See Profile :

The reality is nothing in this world is free.
There are two different types of free. Free as in speech, and free as in beer. Mr. Pulver is just switching from free as in beer to free as in speech.

fatmanskinny
Premium
join:2004-01-04
Atlanta, GA

Lookout!

EarthLink is going to try and snap this company up!
voipguy

join:2006-05-31
Forest Hills, NY


edit:
August 11th, @11:21AM

Pulver needs money

Has anyone heard about the health of Pulver's organization? Is it true that VON Europe was cancelled without refunding the fees paid by exhibitors? Is it true that Pulver laid off his entire management team?

Some of these rumors could be behind FWD not being Free any more.

Pulver has done more for VOIP than many. Its a sad turn of events.

MikePea

@verizon.net


from:
Kniveton See Profile

Re: Pulver needs money

I've been watching the multiple forums that Pulver has created in the past 10 years or so, and it was always been my impression that these sexy-sounding, expense forums just sucked real dollars and personnel away from legitimate standards organizations and industry consortiums that were working on the real technical issues related to VoIP and other IP issues.

As such, I believe that Pulver has done more damage to the telecommunications industry than just about any other person. I, for one, am glad that VON is dying.
bugabuga

join:2004-06-10
Austin, TX

No more free 800 number calls

They used to provide interconnection with several other providers (such as Broadvoice) that was free, as well as free gateway to 800-numbers.
I asked Daniel Berninger if there will be any alternative for free 800-number gateway but haven't got any response yet. Frankly I thought that 800 calls were giving them revenue, as terminating carrier supposed to pay for LD delivery.

I also wonder if someone else will jump in to provide minimal "free for all SIP registration"...
--
Странные новости почти каждый день
celtic

join:2001-02-08
USA

free 800 number calls - currently work

said by bugabuga See Profile :

They used to provide interconnection with several other providers (such as Broadvoice) that was free, as well as free gateway to 800-numbers.
I asked Daniel Berninger if there will be any alternative for free 800-number gateway but haven't got any response yet. Frankly I thought that 800 calls were giving them revenue, as terminating carrier supposed to pay for LD delivery.

I also wonder if someone else will jump in to provide minimal "free for all SIP registration"...
I just completed an 800 number call on FWD. Did FWD make an announcement that outgoing 800 would or would not work in the future?
bugabuga

join:2004-06-10
Austin, TX

Re: free 800 number calls - currently work

According to them they are "introducing" $30 a year charge for accounts this month. That's also why I asked him the question

rec9140
Provoice just DO it

join:2003-07-29
Mulberry, FL
·RoadRunner Cable

Re: No more free 800 number calls

said by bugabuga See Profile :
I asked Daniel Berninger if there will be any alternative for free 800-number gateway but haven't got any response yet. Frankly I thought that 800 calls were giving them revenue, as terminating carrier supposed to pay for LD delivery.
I seem to recall that the 8xx termination was being done by a company or group in MI and that was who got the $$$ and not FWD. They just offered it to FWD.

Here is a link partially about it....
»www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Telesthetic

I route all my 8xx traffic this way right now, looks like I will be finding some one new.
--
Ban all copyright, trademarks, and IP laws!//Lorem ipsum ei pro stet equidem labores, at enim animal expetenda nec. Ea vix argumentum dissentiunt, usu esse ridens ex.

The Beer
I Love It When A Plan Comes Together
Premium
join:2001-07-24
Omaha, NE
clubs:
·ViaTalk


edit:
August 11th, @12:02PM

Not Shocked

Jeff has always been a little over the top with these events, I attended VON once on his dime, I have been 2 times on my own since.

I have always thought is this the best use of the outrageous fee for his conferences?

The meals were crazy along with his "All Conference Party" once with Heart playing in San Jose I think, can't remember the others.

My work will not pony up 5k to goto these conferences for the full pass, and I doubt most sane people would.

He always seems to have good ideas, and the product gets produced but never makes it main stream.

CellSocket? Yep a Pulver device.
First Consumer WiFi Sip phone? Yep, worked with Pulver.

Both great ideas, neither made it out of a small segment of peoples hands.

EDIT:
After some more digging looks like all the VON sites are down and on a Godaddy park page.
hottboiinnc
Kyle

join:2003-10-15
Toledo, OH

Re: Not Shocked

the VON sites work for me.

The Beer
I Love It When A Plan Comes Together
Premium
join:2001-07-24
Omaha, NE
clubs:
·ViaTalk

Re: Not Shocked

Von.com is up but all the content is outdated.

Links on Pulver.com to von sites are dead...
»www.springvonx.com/
»www.vonxeuropespring.com/

Including Fall Von happening in a few months...
»www.fallvonx.com/
maxpower

join:2006-10-09
Providence, RI

freebies

Remember the old NetZero commercials? They used to say "The internet was meant to be free." It happens.
qworster

join:2001-11-25
Los Angeles, CA
·Brand X Internet
·RoadRunner Cable
·Vonage
·DSL EXTREME
·EarthLink


edit:
August 11th, @01:19PM

Are they going to change the name?

I mean they need to change it to "Paid World Dialup".

Seriously though-this is the end of FWD. No one is going to pay 30 dollars for something they can get elsewhere for free (Skype, etc.).

The only possible value would be for IPKall to stay free-and do you really think THAT'S gonna happen?

Besides there is at least one VOIP provider that offers not only unlimited SIP-SIP calling for free but also inbound SIP calling from the PTSN network for 2 dollars a month. Go to the VOIP forum here and you'll find them there.

I have 10 FWD lines that my relatives rarely use. I can't afford to pay 300 dollars a year for something that I hardly use.

Buh Bye, FWD!

cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN

Re: Are they going to change the name?

Does Skype offer free SIP dialing?
qworster

join:2001-11-25
Los Angeles, CA

Re: Are they going to change the name?

No, but read this blog and you'll find that many others do...

»truvoip.blogspot.com/2008/08/wou···_06.html

sporkme
drop the crantini and move it, sister
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-01
Budd Lake, NJ
·Optimum Online

Re: Are they going to change the name?

said by qworster See Profile :

No, but read this blog and you'll find that many others do...

»truvoip.blogspot.com/2008/08/wou···_06.html
I've been playing with OnSIP at work. If I'm reading this correctly, non-PSTN calls are free if you don't add any features.

»www.onsip.com/pricing-signup
instantnet11

join:2004-01-29
Portland, OR
Free through gizmoproject.com

BillRoland
Premium
join:2001-01-21
Ocala, FL
clubs:
·Cox HSI

I have to agree with your assessment. I joined FWD way back in the day and found that while it was a cool idea and was "neat," it was barely useful at best. If you didn't know anybody who had it, there wasn't really much point to it that I could find.

Sad to see a VoIP pioneer service go down the tubes, as FWD surely is on the course to do.
--
"Don't steal. The government hates competition."

WhyADuck
Premium
join:2003-03-05

So set up your own PBX in a Flash or Elastix system and reprogram your relatives' VoIP adapters or VoIP softphones to come to your system rather than FWD. Both distributions are free, and are based on Asterisk and FreePBX, so there's no cost except the electricity to run the computer (and you do NOT need a high-end computer, the five year old computer you probably have stashed in a closet is perfectly adequate for the light usage scenario you envision). If you ask around, there are even ways to terminate U.S. toll free calls at no cost (hint: ENUM). For shared incoming numbers, check out Sipbroker and/or Gizmo5 (actually, Gizmo5 seems to offer a lot of FWD's functionality, but don't take that as a recommendation).
qworster

join:2001-11-25
Los Angeles, CA
·Brand X Internet
·RoadRunner Cable
·Vonage
·DSL EXTREME
·EarthLink

Re: Are they going to change the name?

said by WhyADuck See Profile :

So set up your own PBX in a Flash or Elastix system and reprogram your relatives' VoIP adapters or VoIP softphones to come to your system rather than FWD. Both distributions are free, and are based on Asterisk and FreePBX, so there's no cost except the electricity to run the computer (and you do NOT need a high-end computer, the five year old computer you probably have stashed in a closet is perfectly adequate for the light usage scenario you envision). If you ask around, there are even ways to terminate U.S. toll free calls at no cost (hint: ENUM). For shared incoming numbers, check out Sipbroker and/or Gizmo5 (actually, Gizmo5 seems to offer a lot of FWD's functionality, but don't take that as a recommendation).
Actually, Gizmo 5 is BETTER, in that it offers direct calling to many cell phones via their "backdoor".
instantnet11

join:2004-01-29
Portland, OR

Re: Are they going to change the name?

Or using many worldwide access numbers through www.sipbroker.com ! They also have toll free access.

On the one hand this might have an AOL affect. Shed the people that were not generating any revenue and then make money off of the rest. They should seriously just merge with gizmoproject.com
tmc8080

join:2004-04-24
Floral Park, NY

movin on up...

Seriously.. unless they offer AT LEAST what skype does for $3/unlimited per month or $30 per year, they are going to lose tons of support...

Companies can not run on a shoestring budget anymore.. the costs are simply too high. The cost of doing business meets the inflation bogeyman. Things will never be the same now that we've breached big oil's $5/gallon gasoline price target. Free after rebate deals have all but dried up. Costs that used to be supportable on ad revenue models are no longer viable. Its a brave new world where big business chokes of little business in many areas of the economy in a fight to the death. Another way to look at it is the walmartization of the voip industry. Sooner or later, those click to connect [FREE] services will dry up all their venture funding and those will be gone as well.

The market will end up with in order of cost: POTS, cable VOIP, 35-55% POTS cost VOIP (aka vonage's of the world), low cost carriers such as skype and sooner or later a microsoft / apple iteration of voip.. and that's about it, don't expect free to survive the economic downturn much longer. Might as well prepare to remove it from the english language lexicon.

deheza

join:2004-06-10
Allen, TX

Voxalot

Voxalot offers a similar service for $15 a year.
emoci

join:2007-05-29
York, ON

There is multiple alternatives already

1.VoXalot offers a similar Service for Free... (and goes beyond that to allow for aggregation of multiple outgoing providers also for Free)

If you decide that you want to add incoming DIDs (provided your DID provider won't let you terminate to a SIP URI) then you need to pay from $15 to $40 a year depending on how many registrations you need. Extra features like Call Forwarding, VoiceMail on The Web and Call Records come with this.

2.MySipSwitch offers SIP connectivity, outgoing calls via third party providers, dialplan configurations and incoming registrations for Free.

3. Between SipBroker (and their peering with E164.org) you should be able to call most of the Toll Free numbers that were available with FWD (you don't even need an ATA, just call one of their local access numbers from any phone and get calling from there)

FWD may have been a pioneer in the space, but it also had not changed much since its creation (most of the alternatives offer SIP connectivity, while bundling PSTN connectivity options as well)
Forums » Free World Dial-Up No Longer Free


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