Free International Calling
Since we mentioned the Futurephone free international calls service, a few similar services have cropped up. It looks like for the next few years, there will be a number of services that let you place international calls, just for the cost of a call to Iowa.
AllFreeCalls.net lets you call two dozen countries for free. Just dial 712-858-8094, and listen to the instructions. Dial 0-1-1, followed by the country code and the number you want to call.
FreePhoneCallz.com offers a similar service: dial (712) 945-4444 and follow the prompts.
These services are taking advantage of the Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service Fund, which helps telecommunications in states where the telecom infrastructure is lacking. The U.S. government pays these companies a small fee for every call that is placed from certain states — in this case, Iowa. A more detailed explanation of the scheme can be found here. Also here.
January 19th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
I wonder if there is such a service in other countries. Does the supposed 3-year expiration time connected with the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund?
January 19th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Yes, I think so
January 25th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
[…] Recently, via the Phonefun.us blog we learned about several services that provides free international long distance calls (for many countries) when dialed from any phone in the U.S. All of the service listed don’t place time restraints on the legnth of yor call and registration is not required. […]
February 16th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
[…] Of the three services that we’ve discovered that offer free international calls, two of them have already gone belly-up. The web site of Futurephone (which we wrote about here) says the service is no longer available, and FreePhoneCallz.com (article here) has quietly gone disconnected. Maybe the Universal Service Fund loophole that these companies were using to generate income isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. […]