You might recall back in 2007, when the FCC told the major phone companies they
couldn't ban user access to free Iowa-based conference call operators. While those operators were using regulatory loopholes to milk giant telcos, blocking customer access to services of their choice was frowned upon. So it's interesting to see Mike Masnick at Techdirt noting that discount VoIP company Magic Jack is
doing just that. Apparently, customers who try to call into
FreeConferencecall.com are unable to do so, with the provider telling them they must use Magic Jacks
own service:
But, considering how many conference call invites I get these days that use FreeConference, it's quite a pain to find out that my own phone line can't dial into it. Other MagicJack users have been discovering the same thing, and MagicJack's customer service response has been hopelessly inept. They just keep repeating that you need to use their own free conferencing service, and if you finally find someone who understands that you're trying to call into someone else's conference they just say sorry, you can't do that.
Mike's complaints mirror those of users
in our forums, who say the connectivity between Magic Jack and FreeConferenceCall worked just fine until recently. Magic Jack's inventor and CEO stops by the comments over at Techdirt to defend Magic Jack's position:
I am protecting ourselves and our customers from excessively high access charges by companies who might be gaming the system. In the Telephone world,there are requirements to interconnect with one another.If you do not,you might not be able to pass traffic back and forth.It's a fact of life .I have interconnect agreements with Verizon,AT&T,Sprint etc.If we did not,we would be out in the cold.I can interconnect with any conference calling company who wants to within minutes.It is their responsibility to initiate this connection.
Of course Magic Jack's explanation is the same as the baby bells: we're blocking user access to this service because small rural telcos are taking low cost calls, terminating them on a higher cost carrier, and pocketing the difference (aka "
traffic pumping"). Magic Jack inventor Dan Borislow claims it's not illegal for his company to block calls to this service, though the FCC has historically frowned upon the practice.
Update: Someone claiming to be Magic Jack CEO Dan Borislow has
stopped by our forums to defend the company's position.
VOIP 
