July 2007

Daniel Borislow's new company MagicJack releases new telecom gizmo that lets customers make "free long distance calls, forever". The gizmo costs $39.95, with subsequent "licensing fees" of $20 per year after the first year. More...

 The former head of Tel-Save, which eventually morphed into Talk.Com, announced plans for his new, privately-owned company earlier this year, but until now the gadget has been confined to the category of "vaporware".

Wireless MVNO AMPD Wireless has won a temporary reprieve from underlying carrier Verizon. The company's luck is scheduled to run out next week though, as the company's customers will lost service on July 31st.

Troubled VoIP provider SunRocket has ceased operations as of Tuesday, leaving a reported 200,000 customers without phone service. Customers were given no notice of the impending shutdown, which appears to be permanent.

Sirius Telecom, the nation's largest provider of partitioned softswitch facilities to telecom service providers, is expanding its use of session control technology from Sansay to secure and optimize VoIP and VoIP-to-TDM communications with Sansay's VSX VoIP session controller ensuring maximum performance, security and seamless interoperability in a multi-vendor infrastructure.

Want to buy or sell the absolute cheapest VoIP service available "guaranteed"? We uncover "hidden" offers that most people will never hear about. Details on their agent programs listed as well.

The Federal Communications Commission today announced that it has suspended the tariffs of 39 rural carriers, allegedly due to concerns over excessive termination fees. Most of them are believed to be in Iowa.

 The FCC did not release the entire list or order to the public, although we are attempting to obtain a copy of it. As of press time, we have not received a response from the FCC. It is unlikely that we will receive any further information on this story until after the July 4th holiday. Most Federal offices are closed on Wednesday.

MobilePro Corp. , announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell its CLEC Division in a transaction valued at $30 million to United Systems Access Telecom, Inc., which does business as USA Telephone (http://www.savewithusa.com). The sale will include cash of $21.9 million and $8.1 million in convertible preferred stock in United Systems Access paid in two tranches.

TRAC reports that AT&T will be raising the cost of their "Carrier Cost Recovery Fee", adding monthly recurring charges for some long distance plans and adding a monthly minimum usage charge for others. The cost of custom calling features will rise in some states as well.

 AT&T Raising Fees Again July 1 - The beginning of July will bring a large number of rate and fee increases for AT&T local and long distance phone subscribers. A full run-down of the increased prices follows: