On 8/17/2008 6:43 AM George spake thus:

Dave Bugg wrote:

George wrote:

I never claimed they were an ISP but their business model is very
similar to what the "free" and "cheap" ISPs had. You paid a lower rate
because theoretically the ads that you were required to watch would
pay the difference.

So you are claiming that I won't be able to make or recieve a phone call
until I watch an ad? Do you really think anyone sits and watches their
dialer gui while making a call? I don't get what your issue is here.

I don't have an issue. Is there some issue about discussing how
something actually works?

The subscription fee isn't even close to anywhere near the actual cost
of providing the service. The reason they chose the energy wasting idea
of having a computer running is so they could display ads. There is no
technical reason to have a full blown computer running for VoIP. All of
the functions are typically implemented in a tiny box that has a network
port and a phone port. Right now they are burning up investors money
and the next step is they will need to turn on the ads. That is their
business model. There is nothing magical about magicjack. It is the
exact same model that was used by the "cheap and free" ISPs that are now
nothing by a vague memory. I agree that I couldn't be bothered watching
an ad in order to make a call but that is the business model.

Pardon my confusion, as I don't know exactly how this thing works, but
if it's true, as D. Bugg says, that one needn't watch the screen at all
for incoming calls, couldn't one just use the tiny network box for this?
Or is there some user interface interaction required to take and place
calls?


--
"In 1964 Barry Goldwater declared: 'Elect me president, and I
will bomb the cities of Vietnam, defoliate the jungles, herd the
population into concentration camps and turn the country into a
wasteland.' But Lyndon Johnson said: 'No! No! No! Don't you dare do
that. Let ME do it.'"

- Characterization (paraphrased) of the 1964 Goldwater/Johnson
presidential race by Professor Irwin Corey, "The World's Foremost
Authority".