One of the promises of VoIP is it’s cost-effectiveness. By overlaying the new breed of telephony networks on top of our existing data networks and the Internet, thereby leveraging a transport mechanism that we’re already maintaining and paying for, we rid ourselves of the high toll charges imposed on us by the traditional telephony services by allowing end-users to call each other, regardless of the distance, essentially for “free.” And not just within our corporate walled gardens either; Skype, for example, has built the core of their business around providing a basic service of free phone calls between end-user consumers.
With the traditional telephony business model, the further away from the party you are calling, the higher the toll charge to call them. Even local calling within your local geographic area carries a cost, although now days that cost is generally a monthly flat-rate. The core business is built on these toll-ridden services, and “toll-free” calls are the exception to the norm. These so-called “toll-free” calls aren’t really toll-free at all however, they are only free to the party making the call; the recipient of the call pays the premium to provide this “free service” to their callers. The bottom line is, the consumer is usually being charged something throughout the entire spectrum of services. With VoIP and the new era of telephony, this is all changing…
