Gizmo Project, Skype, and Free Calling
I’ve been using Gizmo Project to make some calls. On a couple of occasions where the call went past thirty minutes, I noticed that the call disconnected after about 30 minutes. Right before the disconnect, I heard a message from Allison of Asterisk fame saying “you have sevenseconds.” This happened a couple of times, then I was hung up.
I talked with a couple of folks at Gizmo Project and they’ve said “this is by design.” Apparently, people are abusing the “Free calling” and so they are experimenting with various ways of thwarting abuse. Hopefully they will fix the message so it is at least somewhat informative.
This got me thinking: when you offer free calling, even with the restictions Gizmo Project has put on it, how do you prevent people from abusing the snot out of it? Even though the calls are free to us, you know the calls aren’t free to Gizmo Project, Skype, or anyone else who offers that service. With Skype, it seems, the fact their PSTN audio quality sucks might make it difficult for people to want to use it, let alone abuse it. With Gizmo, the audio quality on PSTN calls is much better. I can understand why people want to abuse it. 
I think we’re going to have to put up with “restrictions” on our free calling until the cost of PSTN calling really does hit zero. Meanwhile, I’m happy to pay a penny a minute to Gizmo Project for PSTN calls that sound great.
Technorati Tags: skype, gizmo project, free calling
