Yak4Ever provides free international calls with no restrictions on the number or duration of calls. My immediate reaction was: this sounds like a scam; how does Yak4Ever make money? After some research, it appears that Yak4Ever has a “legitimate” business plan and does not profit at the expense of calls. Now I feel much better about telling my Mom about the service since Yak4Ever is no mysterious charity, and it doesn’t make money by ripping off users of the service.
To understand how Yak4Ever makes money, one must understand the concept of “termination fees” amongst telecom companies.
When a long-distance call is “terminated,” if a long-distance provider like AT&T doesn’t own the local lines where that call is going to, it must pay a fee to the company that does.
(source)
Iowa, where Yak4Ever users must first call before getting routed to the desired international number, has unusually high termination fees. Thus, for each call that Yak4Ever’s Iowa number receives, they receive more than what is needed to cover the cost of international calls. The resulting profit (revenue from Iowa termination fees minus cost of international calls) might be mere pennies per minute, but it sure adds up if a lot of people take advantage of this free service.
The FCC has stated that large carriers like AT&T are not allowed to block or degrade the service of operations like Yak4Ever. However, it is still possible that the legislation regarding these termination fees and kickbacks will change, or that the FCC or courts will rule that AT&T is not required to pay Yak4Ever, which would end the free ride. The bottomline is: take advantage of Yak4Ever while it exists if you can call Iowa numbers for free or cheaply.
For those interested, here’s a list of links covering in much more detail the operations of Yak4Ever and the drama of AT&T vs. Yak4Ever and similar operations.
Complicated Laws = Free Calls
Free International Calls! NOT Too Good to be True
“Free” International Calls Are Back
What’s With the 712 Area Code?
AT&T’s ‘Free Call’ Bill: $2 Million
AllFreeCalls Rising up as Yak4Ever
It’s ironic that I feel much better about using a free service if I know that the service provider is doing it purely for profit rather than the goodness of his heart. I think lots of people feel this way. Yak4Ever should really explain on their website how they are making (or hoping to make) money by providing this service.
If you liked this post, please subscribe to my feed. Thanks for visiting!
