Fonpods Down for the Count?
Following our story about Qwest’s lawsuit against Iowa-based “free calling” services, it looks like one of the named defendants, Fonpods, is offline. The Fonpods website seems redirected to a curious message about it being a Qwest page, so it looks like no more free podcasts for now. Calls and emails to Fonpods’founder Ted Heieck are so far not being returned.
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It’s a shame about Fonpods, but “illegal” rev share is not the only way to provide what is otherwise a great service. For example, Earkive (www.earkive.com) is completely legit: They don’t rely on anything in Iowa, they have a sponsored service offered for free to the podcasting community that the company pays for, and have better functionality.
With phonecasting.com you can dial up you favorite podcasts. Great service for podcasters too, even lets you record a podcast by phone.