Not really. The examples mentioned here are very edge case and don't warrant the risk and fraud that this system brings. Big providers love the traffic and can

Not really. The examples mentioned here are very edge case and don't warrant the risk and fraud that this system brings. Big providers love the traffic and can blame things on "international tariffs." Though for all I know, AT&T and so might have deals that require them to terminate all traffic. In the US it is compounded by the fragmented telco system. You can find numbers in the US that'll pay several cents (some bill up to dozens of cents/minute). This was really heavily abused by things like FreeConferenceCalls or "sexy local chat" lines. It's also used to provide "radio-by-phone" for expats. They'll target a large immigrant population, then play home-town stations over the phone call. This lets people without data use their unlimited-US calling get radio from home without paying directly. Lots of money to be made coming up with ideas like this. The FCC has ruled this is mandatory and slapped US telcos that blocked such traffic. Though the owners of such numbers now usually mandate that the business be based or have operation in their jurisdiction to avoid running into more challenges.