Telecom Trends

Yak had a witness at the CRTC's Essential Services proceeding this morning. He was asked if there was evidence of the impact of dial around in disciplining telco long distance rates.

I have access to virtually unlimited North American calling on various lines in the house. However, anyone who makes any amount of international calling is crazy if they don't use a dial-around service. For international calling, all service providers are on an equal footing - even the major phone companies are just resellers of international long distance.

So why are dial around companies so much cheaper?

As I have pointed out before, in many cases, dial around is even cheaper than Skype. No prepayment. No need to run out to a convenience store to buy a card. No expiration date. No 'system access fee'. You just pick up the phone and dial and the charge appears on your bill.

Some people may only make one call per month, if that. But the savings can be dramatic. Dial around provides an important level of flexibility for people swayed to lock into domestic services bundles.

Will the CRTC keeps casual calling viable? In a country like Canada that has such a high percentage of people making occasional international calls, dial around provides affordable choice.

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