How Can A Free Conference Call Be Free?
Bear with me here, but it seems to me like this is a good argument for socialism.<p>Consider: why do termination fees exist? Clearly, as America was being wired with telephone service, the cost to run lines to rural areas was prohibitively expensive. So what's the capitalist/Randian thing to do? Well, charge more for phone service out there. If people can't afford it, then they'll move to where it is cheaper to have a phone line, right?<p>Except you have to consider <i>why</i> people would live in these rural areas to begin with. For a large number of individuals, they are probably farmers (or involved in food production). If they have to pay higher rates for phone lines, then they would have to raise the price of food to make living in rural areas viable. But there's obviously a <i>really big</i> incentive to the government and everyone that's not living in rural areas to <i>not</i> have the cost of food increase. So what does America do?<p>To remain somewhat loyal to pristine capitalist ideas, America decides that it's going to let competition and corporate interests resolve the issue, but to make things "fair", the government will put its finger on the scales, just a bit. Unfortunately, when you forget to take your finger off the scales, then you end up with AT&T spending $250mil unnecessarily!<p>Efficiency of the market, eh?<p>Of course, a more socialist-leaning country would've just had the government pay to install rural phone lines.