
Show HN: Call anybody in the USA free through your browser - lionheart
https://www.calltheusafree.com/
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hitsurume
I havn't tried your service yet but definitely appreciate you doing this and
wishing you success!!

I normally use skype or hangout/gvoice to make calls online, but definitely
never found them that easy to use, and skype has dropped my calls before which
is annoying.

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SeeDave
Cool service! Only drawback is that I wasn't able to find a dial-pad so I
couldn't navigate phone trees. Can't complain though as it's a free service
that works!

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lionheart
Thanks! I'm actually working on the dial pad right now so that should be
updated in a day or two.

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SeeDave
Neat! Looking forward to it! And thanks for the awesome service :)

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lionheart
We just added the dialpad, so you should be able to navigate phone trees as
well now.

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cbhl
Do you own the actual machines that connect to POTS? Or is this built on top
of Twilio or something?

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trome
Its built on someone's platform, who they are obviously paying through the
nose for. Their FAQ says it costs $5 for 250 minute, which is $0.02/min.
Comparatively, I sit somewhere around $0.0028/min and I am not trying to
optimize my costs by doing LCR on the few tens of thousands of minutes we
push. Could probably halve that if I pulled in more providers.

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lionheart
Really? Your costs are as low as that?

Who are you using for your provider?

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trome
> Really? Your costs are as low as that?

Uhh, yeah, and I know I'm overpaying too (though its just $20 or so). VOIP is
a solved problem in the US if you avoid resellers like Twilio, Nexmo, etc and
go directly to either a CLEC or a voice wholesaler.

> Who are you using for your provider? Endstream (NPA-NXX) & Bulk Solutions
> (Flat rate @ $0.0045/min), but there are cheaper providers out there if you
> spend a few hours and set up Freeswitch to do LCR.

We bring in another CLEC for our DIDs (though we have a few dozen with em),
SMS/MMS & E911 due to price & convenience, Endstream is still shaping up their
offerings in the SMS/MMS arena.

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rahimnathwani
"if you spend a few hours and set up Freeswitch to do LCR"

Is this because the cheaper providers don't cover the whole of the US? I mean,
you're using different providers for different number ranges?

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breakingcups
How do you prevent abuse?

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lionheart
For now we've got Google's reCaptcha set up. We're also going to be
implementing a way for recipients of the calls to control what they do and
don't receive.

After that we're going to have to watch the behavior patterns and compensate
for anything that comes up.

It is one of our biggest concerns but something we believe can be conquered.

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lionheart
Hey all, I wanted to post my prototype here and get HN's feedback before
submitting my YC application.

This project came out of the combination of my work on web telephony from the
last several years and the troubles that I've had communicating with the
family members that I have overseas.

Skype is amazing. But it can't beat a phone call. And if you're trying to deal
with a company, a bank, or (god forbid) trying to sort out Visa issues you
need to be able to make a call from anywhere.

I realized that its the 21st century and it doesn't make any sense for
international calling to be so difficult or expensive. Calling should be free
and available to anyone in the world and I wanted to make that happen.

I believe that through sponsors and a Tom's Shoes-style model where those that
can pay for extra features subsidize the costs for those that really need the
free service, we can make this work. And not only can this be a viable
business model but also something that brings a huge amount of social good to
the world.

International communication should be easy. And we want get there, even if its
one country at a time.

I appreciate any and all feedback!

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trome
So, what sets you apart from all the other WebRTC providers out there? How are
you unique?

It could be offering HD Voice interop with AT&T/VZW/T-Mo, selling user
verified CNAM, or anything that adds value you can't get elsewhere.

I'd just avoid trying to become a voice wholesaler, its a very competitive
space filled by a bunch of hyper competitive sub-5 person businesses that are
super nimble due to their size. Most are pushing a few tens of millions of
minutes a month.

~~~
lionheart
Honestly just ease of use. No fees. No ads. No account required. Nothing to
download or install.

Just go to the website, put in the phone number and call.

From what I've experienced with my relatives overseas this is something that's
really needed and something they have not been able to find.

~~~
trome
> Honestly just ease of use. No fees. No ads. No account required. Nothing to
> download or install.

So how are you going to stay viable in 3 to 5 years?

> Just go to the website, put in the phone number and call.

Ok, there are a million WebRTC betas out there right now to use for free, even
AT&T offered one for the past 2 years up until they killed their WebRTC
program in January.

> From what I've experienced with my relatives overseas this is something
> that's really needed and something they have not been able to find.

Sure, but once again to maintain viability, you need to offer something
unique, telecom is a very competitive space, and to scale it you need to build
key relationships. Setting up a WebRTC client is awesome, but they are a dime
a dozen currently.

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lionheart
So first I have to grow this to some decent amount of usage where it even
matters really planning out the long term. :)

But, the current plan is to charge the businesses that want to receive calls
from their international customers for tracking and control.

We can allow the businesses to have branded links that auto-dial their number
that they can share on their website, email, etc. With these they can also
track the source of the caller, do call recording, and route the calls how
they want.

For travel businesses, for example, that do business with primarily customers
outside their country this is a problem that we can solve for them. Most
people would never dial an international number, but they'll click a link and
make a free call from their browser.

~~~
trome
> So first I have to grow this to some decent amount of usage where it even
> matters really planning out the long term. :)

Eh, if you avoid Level 3 and Bandwidth.com directly, and go to a wholesaler
like Endstream, you won't need any volume. Just throw $20 in your account
every few months and you should be good.

> But, the current plan is to charge the businesses that want to receive calls
> from their international customers for tracking and control.

Mmm, you could totes do this, make sure to use Opus and pitch it as Full HD
Audio (better than that tin can HD that carriers are pushing now). Grandstream
supports Opus straight to their deskphones by the way, so you may wanna look
at them. Their middling quality, but rock bottom price wise.

> branded links that auto-dial their number ... track the source of the caller

How do you plan to get the caller's name?

Also, travel businesses might be a viable model for this, I'd just encourage
you to think outside the box, what other areas could use this kind of service?

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lionheart
Thanks for the advice!

I'll look into those providers and see what I can set up. If I can get the
costs down by an order of magnitude that would obviously be amazing.

As for tracking the source of the caller, I'm not talking about their name but
how they came to the website to that then generated the call. Whether thats
though organic search, PPC, advertising, some random forum post, etc. It's a
lot easier to get exact referral information when the call is a web event
rather than an actual phone call.

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737013
So I can understand this. You're sort of offering an international 1800
number? Except instead of using a phone number prefix, you're using links and
WebRTC? It does sound pretty cool.

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lionheart
Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Thanks!

