On Fri, 2009-06-26 at 10:33 -0400, SIP wrote: > Would then Skype be able to come back and do the same thing as an effort > to recapture any lost users? Or would that fall under some sort of > anti-dumping umbrella because it's now a foreign company that's giving > services away below cost? >
loss leaders are legal in the US unless you dominate the particular market, then there are anti-trust laws that come into play and they may not forbid it outright, it depends on the particulars. Google has virtually a 0 market share when it comes to pstn terminated voice traffic. As a result they do not have the same restrictions that someone who dominates the market has. As VoIP to the customer in general is only a small percentage of all telephone calls, most VoIP providers would not have such things. Telephony in the US is regulated, although how much depends on what exactly you are doing. It is legal for companies to sell below their cost, and in one FCC case it was specifically stated that companies cannot complain if they sell below cost and someone buys and uses the service, that the burden is on the carrier to file proper tariffs and enter into proper contracts with customers to avoid losing money if that is what they want. Look at blended rate traffic, unlimited calling (which people have stated both tmobile and verizon wireless really are unlimited), and more. It is quite possible that these companies are losing money on this, and these companies also are some of the largest in their particular market (CMRS), but it is not illegal. So I wonder why you thought it should, or would be illegal for google to give service away for free when first starting out trying to get customers ... -- Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com Bret McDanel pgp key: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x8AE5C721 _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- asterisk-biz mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
