Started being charged for calls to 807

[badandy]

When I first started using freephoneline about 6 months ago, calls to 807 were free... however they've now begun charging. In combination with the new 0.04 connection fee it will cost me about $20/mo for long distance.

I'm wondering if this change is here to stay, or if I should switch to nettalk who offers free US and Canada calls for 30/yr.

[TheHardy]

In a word -- yes.

Most of NPA-807 was incorrectly tariffed as FREE ... I am not sure of there are some ratecentres that SHOULD be free (TBay?) but I am certain (even though I am not an FPL employee) that there was an initial ERROR that had 807 being FREE. Fibernetics/FPL did not have a PoP in that area, and some examination showed that even very small ratecentres were FREE calls, which was obviously a mistake. Overall this change (really a CORRECTION) negatively impacts YOU, due to your specific calling patterns. However in a grander-scheme of things, it is better for the REST of us (in general) that FPL corrected this-- if they kept PAYING and losing money on incorrectly tariffed calls that could cause them to NO LONGER support the service which allows the rest of us to call OTHER areas which are FREE (and correctly so).

I am sorry that you are being negatively impacted ... I do not know what your calling patterns are (but I do know that they are planning an expansion) -- maybe a few messages/PM's for certain major ratecentres MAY be entertained by FPL ... please feel free to do that. Let us know if you get a response!

[badandy]

Thanks for the response Hardy. I brought this up with the CSR who sold me the $100 worth of gear to turn it into a VOIP line. She said "If it works on the PC app without credits, then it is a free call on the VOIP line also regardless if the city is not listed as a free calling area". I wish she had connected the dots, as you have, so I could make a more informed choice. $10/mo is reasonable for US/Canada calling, but the $20-30 it will cost me now with the 807 charges and the additional connection fee is not in line with what I signed up for.

Perhaps they could charge a break-even fee such that they are not losing money on the 807 calls rather than lumping it into the NA long distance zone.

[TheHardy]

Hmmm ... hard to say what the break-even would be. I think 4c is TOO high for NorthAm connection fee -- maybe if they lowered that to 2c ... as for charging LD/toll on calls, there is a fair amount of competition now for the VOIP marketplace. Other than the old standbys (MagicJack, Nettalk, Vonage, etc) there are also some new entrants to the Canadian market -- the airwaves in Vancouver have been saturated with Ooma ads last few weeks. I think that FPL needs to look at expanding (see separate topic) to MINIMIZE the affect of the connection fee ... a large-scale Canadian-major-city roll out would be nice!

As for being sold something that was mis-represented, how long ago did you purchase? And, this is the kicker -- "rates subject to change" (see a different thread where I claim that the connection fee is NOT a rate but a surcharge!). Correcting 807 if it was WRONG is a whole 'nother thing too though, as fixing foul-ups is NOT really a rate increase (although you may choose to argue that).

In any case, do tell what the ratecentres are in 807 that you frequent ... if they are the larger ones, then you may have a glimmer of hope (oh, and see my PM to you as well ....)