IPKall was a

public switched telephone network The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the aggregate of the world's telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local telephony operators. It provides infrastructure and services for public telephony. The PSTN consists o ...

voice over IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

call forwarding service. Users were able to register with the service to obtain a phone number chosen from several

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

State

area codes A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, reach ...

and have all calls to that number forwarded to their

Session Initiation Protocol The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol used for initiating, maintaining, and terminating communication sessions that include voice, video and messaging applications. SIP is used in Internet telephony, in private IP telepho ...

Inter-Asterisk eXchange Inter-Asterisk eXchange (IAX) is a communications protocol native to the Asterisk private branch exchange (PBX) software, and is supported by a few other softswitches, PBX systems, and softphones. It is used for transporting voice over IP tele ...

uniform resource identifier A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), formerly Universal Resource Identifier, is a unique sequence of characters that identifies an abstract or physical resource, such as resources on a webpage, mail address, phone number, books, real-world obje ...

, including an

Asterisk The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

server. The

telephone company A telecommunications company is a kind of electronic communications service provider, more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications access. Many t ...

that provided IPKall numbers is International Telcom; they also provide a flat-rate $1/month

area code 206 Area code 206 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of Washington. The numbering plan area (NPA) includes Seattle and most of its innermost suburbs. This includes such suburbs as Shoreline and La ...

inbound fax service as Faxaway, a non-free voice and fax service as Kall8 (with toll-free or US local numbers) and the Kallback and KallCents discount outbound long-distance services. IPKall's popularity stemmed from the fact that it was probably the last remaining, widely accessible US-based VoIP service offering free-of-charge PSTN numbers.

Business model

The IPKall business model appears to be based on its ability to charge

termination rates In telephony, the termination rate is one of the three components in the cost of providing telephone service, and the one subject to the most variation. Components On every long-distance call in the United States, the customer pays for: * O ...

for calls reaching its subscribers, estimated at about $.01/min, as the service is free for end users. The wholesale price for major

interexchange carrier An interexchange carrier (IXC), in U.S. legal and regulatory terminology, is a type of telecommunications company, commonly called a long-distance telephone company. It is defined as any carrier that provides services across multiple local acce ...

s to terminate calls to independent telcos in rural

Washington (state) Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from Washington, D.C., the national capital, both n ...

and similar locations (such as northern

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

and

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

) is often several cents a minute higher than typical US48 rates; this money is effectively a subsidy to the destination local rural exchange. New registered numbers should receive a call within 72 hours of creation. And also, numbers which don't receive calls within 30 days are taken to be inactive and removed from the service. Direct customer support is not provided. The free plan does not support outgoing calls, except to toll-free telephone numbers.

Discontinuation of service

On February 16, 2016, IPKall announced the discontinuation all existing services as of May 1, 2016 without explanation.

References

External links

IPKall
Telecommunications companies of the United States VoIP companies of the United States {{Telecom-company-stub

Business model

Discontinuation of service

See also

References

External links