FWD (originally Free World Dialup) was 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. It appears to have ceased operations in 2010.
The service provided voice communications between its subscribers worldwide, based on Internet standards. Limited inter-connections to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) provided 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 considered FWD to be an information service rather than a telecommunications service. This ruling followed 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. A servicemark for the new name was granted on April 20, 2004. According to the registration record, the servicemark was not an acronym: the letters stood 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 resolved to the site until 2010.
FWD was 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.
Read more about Free World Dialup: Annual Charge, FCC Decision, This Service Is Shut Down
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