At least in the US, the carrier initiating the call still pays the receiving carrier. This is less then 1¢/minute in most cases, but still represents real money

At least in the US, the carrier initiating the call still pays the receiving carrier. This is less then 1¢/minute in most cases, but still represents real money when multipled by millions of calls a day. Users just pay for 'Unlimited Calling' now, but all the legacy payment structures still exist on the back end.