| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | Jeff Pulver Brandon Lucas Izak Jenie Jefferey Woods |
FWD (originally Free World Dialup) is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network and business venture owned by Pulver.com, Inc. and founded in 1994 by Jeff Pulver, Brandon Lucas, and Izak Jenie.
The service provides voice communications between its subscribers worldwide, based on Internet standards. Limited inter-connections to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) provide users the ability to receive direct-dialed calls from PSTN-landline users, as well as place calls to toll-free numbers in the United States and other countries.
Pursuant to a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on February 12, 2004, the Wireline Competition Bureau considers FWD to be an information service rather than a telecommunications service.[1] This ruling follows a petition by Pulver.com on February 5, 2003 seeking a declaration of this nature. A similar petition by AT&T remains under consideration.
On September 27, 2005, the company changed its name from Free World Dialup to FWD.[2] A servicemark for the new name was granted on April 20, 2004. According to the registration record, the servicemark is not an acronym: the letters stand for nothing at all. The company later removed all references to Free World Dialup from their website, although the domain name www.freeworlddialup.com still resolves to the site.
FWD is connected to other VoIP networks by IPeerX, a VoIP peering company.
Free World Dialup has closed open enrollment of new members to focus on HD content and services.[3]
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Please note that this company obviously doesn't offer the VoIP Service any more and that this company seems to be shut down. The domain doesn't show its offer any more and even not any page from it since March/30/2010.
On August 8, 2008, the company announced they would charge a $30 (US) annual membership fee.[4] Following the implementation of a membership fee the service ran into technical issues eventually resulting in it going offline completely.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps is quoted as stating the following upon the FCC decision to characterize FWD's service as an information service: "Despite attempts to characterize this Order as limited to the specific facts of Pulver.com's FWD, I am concerned that the decision speaks much more expansively. By deciding the statutory classification of Pulver.com's service as an interstate information service, the Order raises a host of questions about the continuing relevance of those most fundamental telecommunications policy objectives that Congress has entrusted to this Commission."