The Coalition for Carrier Neutrality has been formed to set the record straight regarding telephone service and features like free conference calling. FreeConferenceCall.com is proud to be a member of the coalition and will continue to support all of it's key initiatives. You can learn more about the coalition by clicking the tab at the top of the page. The first order of business is to stop the spreading of myths by the large carriers.
MYTH: Rural LECs teaming with conference providers is “an illegal traffic pumping scheme.”
FACT: In three cases over the last six years, the FCC expressly rejected AT&T complaints that raise the same issues AT&T is pushing now, and has found that the type of conferencing services provided by the Coalition members is perfectly legal.
MYTH: AT&T and other long distance carriers were blocking but have now stopped.
FACT: Several of the conference calling Coalition members report sporadic blocking of particular numbers. Previously no calls were going through but now only 50% to 80% are completed. This indicates “dirty tricks” in the routing of traffic that has the effect of blocking some calls and degrading overall service. The Iowa Utilities Board requires 97% call completion or higher as a standard for acceptable phone service. Coalition members engineer their networks based on this call completion rate and a 20% to 50% drop does not occur by accident.
MYTH: Conference calling will cost AT&T $250 million in access bills.
FACT: This number is completely unsupported and is based on fabricated projections of “exponential growth” for rural LECs. In truth, 7 of the Iowa LECs in the Coalition are suing AT&T to collect their access charges. The total access bill for 7 LECs over six months is approximately $20 million.
MYTH: All LECs are expanding beyond conferencing services and offering numbers for adult chat lines.
FACT: FreeConferenceCall.com, one of the largest conferencing providers in the country, boasts a conferencing customer base that includes: 20,205 nonprofits, 7,342 universities, 1,292 government users, and 349 military personnel -- 0 adult chat customers! Coalition LECs do not actively solicit adult content providers, and do not support use of conference calling for this purpose. All local telephone companies provide numbers for conferencing, and cannot dictate content. Some customers may use these conference bridges for sexually oriented talk – this is why AT&T, Verizon, and Qwest numbers power adult chat sites such as RedHotDateline, LiveLinks, and TangoByPhone.
MYTH: Iowa LECs are exhausting the supply of available telephone numbers.
FACT: Conference calling is not a number-intensive application. When a conference number is used, all conferencing parties dial one number. In contrast, cellular carriers use twice as many phone numbers in Iowa as the local telcos.