AT&T Ripoff - comments continued

A commenter on my recent post on AT&T overcharging asks how I know that the wholesale cost of termination in the US is less than a penny per minute.  He claims I'm  "just speculating."

I'm not speculating but it's fair question.  I founded and was CEO of voice wholesaler ITXC Corp until it merged with Teleglobe in 2004.  Sometime in 2003 the price we CHARGED our wholesale customers for US termination (these prices are very competitive) went under one cent per minute.  It has gone down since.  That's why Skype can provide RETAIL US termination at 2 euro cents and its competitors even less.

I also know from experience that the allocated cost of IP transport for VoIP - even to and from Iraq - is far less than one cent.  In fact, competitive PSTN rates for transport have also fallen precipitously and are probably also less than a penny but I don't know this directly.

I mentioned that the IP available to solders is apparently not good enough for VoIP.  This is a problem with the last mile connection - not the IP backbone to and from Iraq.  Plenty of websites in Iraq work fine (when there's power).  AT&T knows how to access this backbone.

Since it has a monopoly, it has a responsibility to either provide the competitive rates itself or not block those who are willing to provide better rates.  I have not said and don't believe that AT&T has to subsidize these calls or even forgo a reasonable profit.

But I should have said how I know what I asserted.  Good comment.

Comments

[Tariq]

I was ok with Att&T service except drop calls on my Iphone untill I got my most recent bill. There were few international incoming call on my wife phone on sunday 08/29/10, some how some one call someone did fraud and change that call to outgoing call from my wife phone from att&t office and bill us for 61 minutes of call for $214.72. First of all we did not make no international call that day, we did receive few international call that day. Secondly we use calling cards when we make international calls. Thirdly, our phone did not had set up from you guys to make international call at that time. The day I spoke with you customer service rep, we try to call international number, our phone did not let us call international number, very intresting another fraud from att&t we try to call international from her phone today and it was going through fine, so that tell me at&t is invloved in this fraud call because we did not have no access to make internatiol calls about 10 days ago suddenly we can make international call from our cell phone. At&t trying to do that with u so they can say we had access to make internatiol calls and that is lie and fraud from at&t. We will challange that in any court. Someone one from at&t made that change to our account after I spoke with customer service. That alone is very big fraud.We demand from At&t exeutive to full investigte this issue and file charges against those who changed incoming call to out going call and those who did fraud from charging our account. . When I called and spoke with one of your customer service rep about 10 days ago, she told me that she can charge me .41 cent per minute and that will be about $25.00, I told her I will not pay a penny for incoming call and I told her to forward case to fraud department, she said fraud department will contact with me before 29th October 2010, today is 29th and I did not receive no call or e-mail or lette from at&t. We will not pay due bill untill we get fraud charges remove from our account. We also want at&t to sent us applogy letter for fraud charges on our account and remve all unauthorize/fraud charges from our account. I told her that I gurantee u that we did not make no internatiol call and we will challange that in any court. If we dont get credit back on our account and applogy letter from At&t within 48 hours we have no choice except to file fraud charges againt at&t. Please forward this e-mail to at&t executive. Thank you for your help and support.
If you have any question u can email me or reach me on my cell # 806-441-9927
Sincerely,

[Abby]

Could you please explain a bit how this works. In my retail experience of telco, I've always found taht calls originating in the US were cheaper, especially with phone cards.

It is much cheaper for me to call my parents in St. Vincent than it is for anyone in St. Vincent to call the U.S. It's also true that the landline business there is a complete monopoly for several more years. (Luckily teh Supreme Court of the Eastern Caribbean ruled that the monopoloy grant did not extend to cellular providers, so cell phone companies are allowed to compete and may bring rates down.

It may be that rates are refulated all over, but I've had similar experiences dialing the UK. I've been trying to price calls between the US and Kiev, where my sister is a peace corps volunteer, and I haven't quite figured out the best service, although it seems pretty reasonable in both directions.

[Patrizia Broghammer]

I would expect that the price of the telephone call the troups in Iraq have to pay is 0 cent per minute.
It is the minimum in my opinion their own country should provide to people that risk their life every day:the possibility to call home for free.

Patrizia