Joining the plethora of services that offer free conference calls and free fax calls, Yak4Ever allows callers free international telephone calls. To get free calls, you register up to 10 numbers, dial an in-country telephone number, and choose which of the ten numbers you'd like to call. The international leg of the long-distance call is free. (I can't comment about the quality of the calls as the service isn't working for me just yet.)
Yak4Ever isn't based on altruism or on advertising revenues. Instead, like similar services, Yak4Ever is based on a quirk in US telecommunications law, which allows them to charge your local telephone company substantial fees for the inbound leg of the call. This fee allows Yak4Ever to turn a profit without charging the caller.
Is this financial model viable? Clearly the carriers who terminate the calls don't care for it; instead of subsidizing telecommunications development for local residents in rural towns, they're subsidizing free conference calls, faxes, and international calls from people who are certainly in a position to pay for them. The US Federal government took notice and recently considered an "emergency" order to ban such services.
Topics: · business · government · telecommunications
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