Pat Phelan (photo by Shel Israel) is the founder of AllFreeCalls, a service that offers free calls from the US to a large number of countries around the world. Visit his telecom blog here.

How did you get the idea for AllFreeCalls, and how long did it take to get off the ground?

Allfreecalls came about as a result of 18 months work, We had watched certain area’s in the world heading to almost zero and wanted to pass this on to the American consumer. Due to positive legislation by the FCC we discovered a method of passing this zero cost onto our customers.

What are the costs in developing and operating a service like yours?

Development cost were not in 5 figures but hardware costs are in the region of $4 million, carrier contracts and deposits would be the same as hardware costs

What is the business model for AllFreeCalls?

We need to hit 50 countries to achieve the traction necessary to keep the business moving forward, certain destinations are already profitable with other destinations being leading loss makers. We are hoping to add 1 country or city breakout per week and are working on taking this model worldwide at present

What are some useful things you've learned from working on startup companies?

I was asked this question recently and whilst I can’t think of the answers verbatim I will share a few:

Your team may not want to put in the same hours as yourself
Let the team share in the success
North America is an enormous market with an incredible high number of early adopters,
If your target is 3 months expect to multiply it by 25%
Triple your initial budget
Stop looking at that Bentley.

Do you have any personal secrets to success?

Hard work, good partners and an understanding wife

What are some sources for your inspiration? Any blogs you frequently read?

Shel Israel took me under his wing and gave me incredible advice so he is number 1.

Tom Raftery helped us so much.

After that I subscribe to almost 200 blogs using the fantastic Attensa product.

My favourite telecoms bloggers would be

Andy Abramson, Jeff Pulver, Alec Saunders, Lucafiligheddu, and Ewan MacLeod.