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February 07, 2007
Paul Kapustka: AT&T’s ‘Free Call’ Bill: $2 Million
Paul Kapustka: AT&T’s ‘Free Call’ Bill: $2 Million
"Guess who got stuck with a big bill for all those “free” international calls touted by outfits like FuturePhone? None other than AT&T, which has filed a lawsuit in Iowa claiming that “deceitful and unlawful schemes” like FuturePhone’s caused a jump from $2,000 per month to $2 million per month in the fees billed AT&T by an Iowa rural telco."
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Once again, when something seems too good to be true, sometimes it is.
Tags: AT&T, voip, Paul Kapustka
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Posted by jeff on February 7, 2007 03:00 PM | Permalink
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Comments
no ld no entry
Posted by: medo at February 25, 2007 03:44 AM
Pat:
Yeah. Well, I think it's clear that FuturePhone and other companies were using (and "abusing") the regulations in a completely unintended manner. They are meant to provide a subsidy to genuine rural phone service, not pay for all international calls.
However, it's not clear to me at all that the behavior, while taking advantage of the regulation, was actually illegal.
Posted by: John Thacker at February 8, 2007 10:10 AM
salut
Posted by: nabil at February 7, 2007 06:16 PM
I think the most important part of Paul's post is below Jeff
"Telco legal sources we talked to said that while the suit’s merit can certainly be contested, what it does immediately is give AT&T a legal reason to stall payments of such monthly bills, which could effectively strong-arm the startups out of business"
Strong arm tactics from an incumbent player indeed
Posted by: Pat Phelan at February 7, 2007 03:26 PM