Anyway, MagicJack can “terminate” calls in one of two ways: direct connections with providers at negotiated rates (which could be zero cents per minute) or going through the PSTN infrastructure at large and paying X amount per minute, which is determined by the phone company in question and is generally published in annual Public Service Commission reports. If voice interconnection/peering is established, MagicJack (or whoever) sets up a SIP, digital or analog connection (probably SIP or ISDN digital) connection between itself and the other carrier, and they either keep track of minutes and bill for the difference between inflow and outflow, or they open up the pipes and let the telephone juice flow for free.

Now some areas are harder to wire than others; so some carriers Prural ones) charge higher interconnection fees per minute than others. That’s all well and good because a national company like MagicJack doesn’t have a ton of people making calls to/from those areas, because that’s not where the population centers are.

The problem arises when free conference calling services game the system, contracting with a CLEC that will provide them with a block of inbound numbers, then splitting the interconnection charges with the CLEC when people call in to the “free” cnference call line. Adding insult to injury, sometimes these CLECs jack up rates even more to these conference call providers (more money is always good, right?) to the point that MJ is paying over ten cents PER MINUTE to connect a conference call that will have multiple participants and will last quite awhile…on a rather popular system to boot. The result for the conference call company and CLEC is they may be making as much as a dollar or two per minute on a service that doesn’t require miles of rural phone lines or any of the other LEGITIMATE reasons for a high termination charge.

I’m looking at a VoIP provider’s rate sheet right now that lists out charges to connect to a given area code/prefix combination. Standard rates range from half a cent to a couple of cents per minute, depending on how rural the area in question is. So far, a couple of numbers in teh 218 area code, including 218-338, are the ONLY ones I’ve seen that go above 20 cents per minute (not 2, TWENTY). It does NOT take twenty cents per minute to run a line from the telephone central office to wherever the conference call system is collocated. No freakin’ way.

The 916-233-0500 number…well, I don’t know what’s up with that. Its termination rates are as low as anyone’s. Could be something anticompetitive, but the 218-339 number…yeah…

MagicJack’s own conference number on the other hand is higher than zero for termination rates (or half a cent) but still reasonable (in the neighborhood of a penny per minute).

So you might be wondering, might these high termination rates put some other rural subscribers out in the cold? Actually, yes. MagicJack won’t complete calls to high-cost exchanges; the nearby Paul Bunyan Telephone Cooperative (5.6 cents per minute on my rate sheet) comes back as “service unavailable” when I try to call it, as do numbers from BPS Networks in Missouri. That said, both companies aren’t exactly cheap to call to, and if you have a MagicJack then you have an internet connection, and if MagicJack works, so will another VoIP company that will allow you to connect to those numbers.

Also, not all rural telcos are blocked. Both telephone cooperatives in my area (central TX) work just fine with MagicJack. Maybe there are some telephone co-ops that don’t work near where I live, but I haven’t found them yet.

The crux of it all is that, if MagicJack connected calls to high-cost markets, they would have to raise their yearly rate. If anyone is okay with them doing that, go to NetTalk…unless they block those numbers as well. You can only do so much with a buck and change per month, and if a rural telco eats that up with one call…or a big

I just tried to call Nobelcom’s US based number and its blocked via Magicjack. I call it and I get redirected to the “exclusive” provider of MagicJacks international calling. It sounds very shady to me. They want to force me to use their overpriced international provider essentially? I thought I was choosing magicjack as my local and long distance provider, not my “exclusive” international provider too. Very shady.

Starting July 2010, I can no longer reach numbers there.

Opened box and chose not to read instructions. Seem basic enough. Connect supplied CAT5 cable from Nettalk to wireless router (I use wireless router). Connect telephone to Nettalk box. Connect supplied power cable to Nettalk box. Green light lit and orange light flashed. Got dial tone and called my cell phone using the area code and 7 digit number. Got a recording that said I needed to dial the number and enter the # sign. I did that and got the same information. Kept trying this for 5 minutes. So I read instructions, the only instructions on the outside of box. Still no luck. Decided to go to Nettalk website and learn what I needed to do. After 10 minutes reading FAQ’s, I see I have to dial a 1 + area code + 7 digit number. I tried this and it works. Yippee. So what is my phone number for my net talk? It is a 012 number. I go back to website and register my information so that E911 can find me, I change the number to an available number for my area code. Cool feature that I did not try is that one can release a phone number and get a new phone number. This is great if one relocates to a different area with a different area code.

Used it for fax and conference calls and it works great.

So fare so good.

I am totally unhappy with this.

‘It cost money for people to call conference lines’, THAT’S WHAT THE $20 A YEAR IS FOR.

They should have thought of this before they said unlimited calls to any number in the US.

Sincerely,

One p****d off customer