Cringely Shows How to Get Free Cell Calls

SafariShane writes "In this week's pulpit, Bob describes how to properly use new software from a company called IPDrum. Basically, you use the free mobile-to-mobile feature of any major carrier to call a dedicated cell phone attached to your computer. That call is then connected to Skype, allowing you to make free cell calls just about anywhere. Just how long till someone does this on a large scale, by overselling the dedicated lines, and starts selling true unlimited cell plans?"

Comments

Interesting, but how novel is it?

[moz25]

With a free mobile-to-mobile feature, you don't have to be able to make free calls, but cheap calls would be cool too. You could interface directly to your computer for a whole range of other things too. My take is that the cool part is in the interface to the computer, with free calls being one of the multiple possibilities. Once this gets popular, there may be some limitations though.

I wonder if this method is patented... ?

Re:Hmm

[ndansmith]

I'm guessing Cringely has made a predictio

I'm guessing he has made an investment, too.

Free?

[Blindman]

The plan requires two active cellular phone connections. Last I checked that isn't free. Sure, it will be cheaper than actually making direct calls, but that is not the same as free. Furthermore, it doesn't sound like it handles incoming calls, so really what you have is a flat fee for unlimited outgoing calls. This doesn't sound particularly free.

Depending upon gaming the system

[Anonymous Coward]

Coming up with a money-saving scheme that depends upon gaming a system is not a great idea when the rules are not under your control and can be changed any time.

No good business model goes unpunished

[G4from128k]

Technology seems to be increasing the economic efficiency of the marketplace by supporting a type of business model arbitrage. If somebody offers something for less than it really costs or is really worth, people use technology to quickly find a way to exploit it.

For example, cell companies offer free in-system minutes to encourage friends & family to recruit new customers -- a nice little viral marketing ploy and something that, I'm sure, reduces stress in friends & family cell phone conversations. But it also creates an opportunity because those free in-system minutes are worth something if they can be somehow converted to out-of-system calls. Hence the motivations for this little hack.

Or consider the case of the single-use video camera. The unit is offered at a subsidized price (less than the true price of the camera) with the expectation that the consumer will return the camera and pay for the DVD conversion service. With a bit of hacking, though, a person can get a low-grade digital video camera for only single-use price of about $20.

Technology allows people to exploit these situations (and publish the results), much to the chagrin of the businesses that use these models. I wonder if this will drive businesses to a true pay-for-what-you-get mode of operation. No cell minutes will be free because it will be too easy to abuse free minutes. No single-use device will be as cheap -- it will require a deposit for the value of the asset.

That technology allows people to use products and services in unintended ways will force companies to change their products or business models to either lock-out unintended uses or build in a charge for the cost of those uses.

Re:No good business model goes unpunished

[Registered Coward v2]

For example, cell companies offer free in-system minutes to encourage friends & family to recruit new customers -- a nice little viral marketing ploy and something that, I'm sure, reduces stress in friends & family cell phone conversations. But it also creates an opportunity because those free in-system minutes are worth something if they can be somehow converted to out-of-system calls. Hence the motivations for this little hack.



Actually, they like getting an upfront fee in exchange for use of the network - the marginal cost of the minutes you spend talking for "free" to friends and family (n network) is negligable- they have teh capacity and it costs nothing to go form 70% to 99 % use. even if the use exceeds capacity they just drop or do not complete calls. The real cost is the large fixed cost of maintaining a network - leasng a tower costs the same wether or not it carries any calls. So giving you those minutes in exchange for an upfront fee is a good deal for them - any long distance is gravy. of ocurse, they've convinced customers that minutes should be sold by the batch - so they get some incremental income and are not likely to give that up - even if MetroPCS sells unlimited minutes for a fixed fee.