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  3. The staggering variety of free stuff available on the Internet sometimes seems to have repealed the first law of economics: Ther

The staggering variety of free stuff available on the Internet sometimes seems to have repealed the first law of economics: Ther

admin2022-09-06  50
问题     The staggering variety of free stuff available on the Internet sometimes seems to have repealed the first law of economics: There’s no such thing as a free lunch. But as so often happens, the dismal science actually has it right. When it looks like you’re getting something for nothing, somebody is paying, and it’s often instructive to know who that is.
    I’ve been testing a new phone service called ooma that provides an interesting case in point. Once you pay $399 up front for a box called the ooma Hub and connect it to your phone and the Internet via your home network, you are promised free, unlimited phone calls over two lines, plus voice mail. The system works fine and is simple to set up.
    When a voice-over-Internet call has to go to a regular phone number, a service such as ooma usually has to pay a "termination fee" to a carrier such as Verizon. Skype, for example, charges 2% per minute for calls outside the Skype network. But ooma avoids this by using some of its customers—those who have kept regular phone lines—to serve as gateways onto the local phone network at no charge.
    When you want to call outside the ooma network, the call moves from your Hub over the Internet to a second landline-connected Hub within the destination’s local calling area. The Hub dials the target number and patches the call through. In effect, ooma customers with landlines pay to keep the whole system going. You don’t even notice if your landline is being used because your own phone calls go out over your broadband connection, with your flat-rate monthly phone bill covering the ooma traffic. In fact, this improves the efficiency of the phone system by putting idle lines to work. But if ooma ever gains real traction, I expect a legal assault from big phone companies, which are losing income from termination fees.
    Web services do take advantage of genuine economies. The phone network is more expensive than the Net. Lots of Net players build on these advantages. Skype relies on selected users who act, often without their knowledge, as "super nodes" to manage the system. FreeConference.com provides calls by taking advantage of regulatory quirks—namely, the stiff termination fees long-distance carriers must pay to certain rural phone companies that handle calls into their territory. In effect, the free conferences are subsidized by customers and shareholders of the long-distance carriers. You may as well enjoy free calls while you can. But it’s always a good idea to read the fine print. If it isn’t obvious who’s paying for a free service, it might well be you.
It could be concluded from the passage that the ooma service
选项 A、worked illegally by losing termination fees.
B、improved the efficiency of the phone system.
C、was paid by the ooma customers.
D、covered the ooma traffic by broadband connection.
答案B
解析 文章第四段倒数第二句提到ooma利用了闲置的电话线路，提高了电话系统的使用效率，故选B。该段末句指出流失终端费用的是大型电话公司而非ooma，故A项错误；替ooma服务付费的只是那些接有陆线的用户。C项将此范围扩大化了；ooma网络流量包含在每月的电话费账单中，故D项错误。
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