Someone Pays for That 'Free' Phone Call
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Regardless of whether one finds Niklas Zennstrom's unusual business ventures right or wrong ["File-Sharing Pioneer Turns to Free Internet Calling," front page, June 4], it is important to note that his "free" Internet file- exchange and "free" phone services are not actually free and require a complex infrastructure that is maintained and paid for by someone.
Jonathan Krim's article on Skype Technologies SA made it seem as though the lack of a traditional telephone network, with poles and wires and technicians, somehow means that Skype does not require any infrastructure to operate. While the service may be free to the public, the Internet on which it depends is a complex hardware and software network that is maintained by an assortment of private and public entities. This doesn't come free, which is why Internet users must generally pay a service provider for access and why many useful Web sites are festooned with advertising.
If Mr. Zennstrom had to pay for even a micro-fraction of the infrastructure that make his "free" ventures work, he would have been out of business before he started.
ERIC WENOCUR
Silver Spring
