Regarding the $80 million sum, that works out to the rough cost “to connect 8 billion minutes of conferencing annually by the 75 million long distance subscribers who use these services (out of 455 million total in the U.S.),” Free Conference Call estimated on a new website about this issue, which inspired more than 100,000 comments to regulators back in January within a few days of notifying users. See also: NYC Delivery Bills Propose Fee Limits, City Permits For Apps Like Grubhub And Uber EatsĪT&T has argued that so-called “access stimulation” traffic, such as Free Conference Call generates, has been costing US consumers up to $80 million extra per year by targeting states or routes with higher fees, and been forcing consumers who don’t do much long-distance calling to subsidize free conferencers.įree Conference Call disagrees, and says that AT&T isn’t being straightforward with its language or its numbers.

In 2012, the FCC chose to eliminate that kind of fee (in keeping with changes to technology and the market), which is a change that free-conferencers probably wouldn’t have noticed, anyway, given their bundled monthly phone bill.Īccording to Free Conferencing Corp., AT&T openly stated that it doesn’t intend to connect these kinds of calls because it will no longer be using the lines that carry or complete them - not specific pieces of equipment, to be clear, but rather pathways through the vast network of infrastructure connecting US cities and states, which are owned, operated, and supported by thousands of different small operators. That’s because, for nearly two decades, most carriers have offered large or unlimited packages of local and long-distance calls for a flat monthly fee, rather than charging by the call or the minute, making most US consumers’ calls effectively pre-paid (and making dial-in conference calls to states like Iowa or South Dakota no more expensive than a call next door).įor some years, certain rural exchanges were also getting a higher fee for routing calls than others in urban areas, or indeed in many other states - part of an ongoing range of government efforts to subsidize and support the build-out of infrastructure in especially isolated rural areas using smaller operators.

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