FreeWorldDialup Moves to Paid Model

Received this email from Jeff Pulver yesterday, along with nearly 1 million other FWD users:-

Quote:

Dear FWD'er: Free World Dialup is implementing a $30 USD annual membership fee during the month of August after 12 years as a free service. A startup taking over a decade to reach conviction about a business model likely sets a record, but we believe $30 USD per year is the magic number. It is 10% of the cost for Vonage's unlimited usage plan. FWD provided the inspiration for the founding of Vonage in 2001, and Vonage's hybrid Internet-PSTN offer now generates nearly $1 billion in annual revenue. FWD's voluntary paid membership experiment last summer demonstrated the demand for a complete break from telephone network. FWD's future as a Communication ISP will include only those services that do not have a per minute charge. Rather than competing directly with the telco's or even Vonage, the mission of a Communication ISP is creating new opportunities and modes of communication. FWD will relaunch the website during August to focus on services, applications, and content available to people with VoIP SIP devices connected directly to the Internet. See FWD CEO, Daniel Berninger's Communication ISP Manifesto. If you wish to retain SIP registration and support FWD, please click through the paid membership banner at the top of the home page which links to the Acteva registration service. Make sure you use the email associated with your FWD account (the one on which this message arrived.) If you lost your FWD account info, you can use the password retrieval process or simply create a new account. The first 1000 paid members get "founder" status, but FWD will retain existing free accounts through August 31, 2008. The new paid membership requirement allows for associating any number of accounts with the email address used for payment, so you can keep the free ride alive by finding a friend with paid membership. I hope you will join in transforming FWD's nearly one million free accounts into paid memberships as we work to make the Communication ISP the next big thing in VoIP. Best regards, Jeff

So, it's the end of the Free Era for FWD. This is to be expected - no-one can be expected to personally bankroll a service which is then offered to customers for free.

Jeff has personally financed FWD for the last 10 years. And many of us have made use of the service. I have pledged my support and paid my $30 because I still feel it's a service worth maintaining and I've at least had that value out of it. In fact, VoIP User was started because of FWD, and TJ and my having a lack of other people on FWD that we could call. So we needed a PSTN gateway backed on to the SIP part.

This is where VoIP User is quite lucky. We're funded by inbound PSTN revenue so although people may perceive VoIP User as "free" in reality we're not (nor can any network be) we're just funded in an unorthadox way.

What would be nice would be to see where the money will be used - eg the FWD roadmap. Voice is just one application and in and of itself has very little value and the value it does have is diminishing.

Reply from x-console on Aug 07, 2008 - 11:01 AM

Quote:

What would be nice would be to see where the money will be used - eg the FWD roadmap

Agreed. An email like this notifying their entire customer base needs a future roadmap so people will be more inclined to pay their 30 bucks now so they can get X or Y cool feature in a few months time, or risks a much lower conversion ratio. Especially in this market, where tech-savvy early-adopters have strong representation in the user-base.

Reply from mace520 on Aug 09, 2008 - 06:48 PM

what will happen if i don't pay? Lose my account? That's not fair.. I have my account since sevral years ago.. I use it for a lot of things (usa number using FWD for example).

I think Jeff should ask for the $30 to user who accounts begin with 89....

I don't want to lose my FWD account, but i can't pay what he's asking for.... I mean, I'm not from USA, so it gets hard to pay from another country!

Reply from Nik on Aug 16, 2008 - 04:22 AM

Hello,


As per the message from Jeff Pulver, Free World Dialup is implementing a $30 USD annual membership fee during the month of August.

If you wish to retain SIP registration and support FWD, please click through the paid membership banner at the top of the home page which links to the Acteva registration service.

Keep in mind, the email used for payment can be reused with any number of accounts, so you only need one paid membership to register multiple SIP devices. We verify membership by comparing the email listed on the My Account/My Settings page in my.FWD with the email used with the Acteva registration service.


Paid membership will allow FWD to improve reliability in support of more than just casual usage. We have an API in the works that will allow 3rd parties to create applications for use by FWD members.


We chose the paid member route to retain an Internet experience independent of usage and geography, and hope you can stay with us as we work to expand the communication options of our members.

Best regards,


Dan

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