by bridonca » 12/18/2014
I have no inside knowledge, but I can see how Fongo, with their free services, still being a profitable company. It is all about vertical integration and costs. Their parent company, Fibernetics, is big enough to own exchanges. Out of these exchanges, Fibernetics can charge a premium for vanity phone numbers or repeating numbers, etc. What number Fibernetics cannot sell, they assign to Fongo. Use it or lose it, I suppose.
Fongo uses Fibernetics' infrastructure, which is already paid for by Fibernetics. Support costs are bare bones. So Fongo's costs are extremely low. Then there is the income Fongo makes.
Fongo makes fractions of a penny per minute for incoming calls. That adds up to real money with enough calls. The SIP settings and porting fees add to the bottom line also. Then there is the long distance. It all adds up.
So, though not likely, if Fibernetics/Fongo did go belly up, one would hope there is something in the regulatory framework would cover what happens to your phone number. I would guess you would have an opportunity to port it to another carrier. I never heard of a CLEC going under, so you got that going for you.