5 ms·
Show HN: Call anybody in the USA free through your browser
- cbhl 10y agoDo you own the actual machines that connect to POTS? Or is this built on top of Twilio or something?
- trome 10y agoIts built on someone's platform, who they are obviously paying through the nose for. Their FAQ says it costs $5 for 250 minute, which is $0.02/min. Comparatively, I sit somewhere around $0.0028/min and I am not trying to optimize my costs by doing LCR on the few tens of thousands of minutes we push. Could probably halve that if I pulled in more providers.
- lionheart 10y agoReally? Your costs are as low as that? Who are you using for your provider?
- trome 10y ago> Really? Your costs are as low as that? Uhh, yeah, and I know I'm overpaying too (though its just $20 or so). VOIP is a solved problem in the US if you avoid resellers like Twilio, Nexmo, etc and go directly to either a CLEC or a voice wholesaler. > Who are you using for your provider? Endstream (NPA-NXX) & Bulk Solutions (Flat rate @ $0.0045/min), but there are cheaper providers out there if you spend a few hours and set up Freeswitch to do LCR. We bring in another CLEC for our DIDs (though we have a few dozen with em), SMS/MMS & E911 due to price & convenience, Endstream is still shaping up their offerings in the SMS/MMS arena.
- rahimnathwani 10y ago"if you spend a few hours and set up Freeswitch to do LCR" Is this because the cheaper providers don't cover the whole of the US? I mean, you're using different providers for different number ranges?
- rahimnathwani 10y ago"Their FAQ says it costs $5 for 250 minute" That's what they charge sponsors. They must be making a margin on that.
- lionheart 10y agoThis is through Twilio, although I'll probably have to expand it to other providers in the future to cover more countries. For starters though, I should be able to grow this from just the USA to 38 countries just through Twilio.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- lionheart 10y agoHey all, I wanted to post my prototype here and get HN's feedback before submitting my YC application. This project came out of the combination of my work on web telephony from the last several years and the troubles that I've had communicating with the family members that I have overseas. Skype is amazing. But it can't beat a phone call. And if you're trying to deal with a company, a bank, or (god forbid) trying to sort out Visa issues you need to be able to make a call from anywhere. I realized that its the 21st century and it doesn't make any sense for international calling to be so difficult or expensive. Calling should be free and available to anyone in the world and I wanted to make that happen. I believe that through sponsors and a Tom's Shoes-style model where those that can pay for extra features subsidize the costs for those that really need the free service, we can make this work. And not only can this be a viable business model but also something that brings a huge amount of social good to the world. International communication should be easy. And we want get there, even if its one country at a time. I appreciate any and all feedback!
- trome 10y agoSo, what sets you apart from all the other WebRTC providers out there? How are you unique? It could be offering HD Voice interop with AT&T/VZW/T-Mo, selling user verified CNAM, or anything that adds value you can't get elsewhere. I'd just avoid trying to become a voice wholesaler, its a very competitive space filled by a bunch of hyper competitive sub-5 person businesses that are super nimble due to their size. Most are pushing a few tens of millions of minutes a month.
- lionheart 10y agoHonestly just ease of use. No fees. No ads. No account required. Nothing to download or install. Just go to the website, put in the phone number and call. From what I've experienced with my relatives overseas this is something that's really needed and something they have not been able to find.
- trome 10y ago> Honestly just ease of use. No fees. No ads. No account required. Nothing to download or install. So how are you going to stay viable in 3 to 5 years? > Just go to the website, put in the phone number and call. Ok, there are a million WebRTC betas out there right now to use for free, even AT&T offered one for the past 2 years up until they killed their WebRTC program in January. > From what I've experienced with my relatives overseas this is something that's really needed and something they have not been able to find. Sure, but once again to maintain viability, you need to offer something unique, telecom is a very competitive space, and to scale it you need to build key relationships. Setting up a WebRTC client is awesome, but they are a dime a dozen currently.
- hitsurume 10y agoI havn't tried your service yet but definitely appreciate you doing this and wishing you success!! I normally use skype or hangout/gvoice to make calls online, but definitely never found them that easy to use, and skype has dropped my calls before which is annoying.
- breakingcups 10y agoHow do you prevent abuse?
- lionheart 10y agoFor now we've got Google's reCaptcha set up. We're also going to be implementing a way for recipients of the calls to control what they do and don't receive. After that we're going to have to watch the behavior patterns and compensate for anything that comes up. It is one of our biggest concerns but something we believe can be conquered.
- SeeDave 10y agoCool service! Only drawback is that I wasn't able to find a dial-pad so I couldn't navigate phone trees. Can't complain though as it's a free service that works!