{{short description|Defunct US telecommunications company}} {{More citations|date=June 2025}} '''BroadPoint Communications''' was a US telecommunications company in the late 1990s offering free long-distance calling supported by advertising, a service the company called "Sponsored Communications." Perry Kamel was founder and CEO of the company,<ref>{{cite web |last=Jacoby |first=Nicole |url=https://money.cnn.com/1999/07/05/life/q_freephone/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150623034306/http://money.cnn.com/1999/07/05/life/q_freephone/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 23, 2015 |title=Free calls...after this word |work=CNN Money |date=July 5, 1999 |access-date=June 26, 2025}}</ref> based in Landover, Maryland. Thomas Hurkmans, president of DQE Enterprises, at the time, was the initial financier of this business. Pittsburgh was BroadPoint's first test market, with the company partnering with Duquesne Light, the local electric utility, to begin offering services in April 1998.<ref name="TRG-1998">{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yE5WAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA9 |title=Free calling? You'll pay with time |newspaper=The Register-Guard |page=2B |date=April 7, 1998 |access-date=June 26, 2025}}</ref>
BroadPoint's FreeWay service was launched nationally in January 1999.<ref name="WP-2000">{{cite web |last=Garretson |first=Rob |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/2000/08/03/broadpoint-trumpeting-free-long-distance/19140659-5447-4395-8e00-dd98f6dccc21/ |title=BroadPoint Trumpeting Free Long-Distance |work=The Washington Post |date=August 3, 2000 |access-date=June 26, 2025}}</ref> BroadPoint users would sign up online for the company's FreeWay service by filling out a personal information questionnaire.<ref name="WP-2000" /> To make calls, users dialed the BroadPoint toll-free number, then entered their PIN, followed by the desired number. Users could then earn minutes of calling time by listening to brief advertisements, five to fifteen seconds in length,<ref name="TRG-1998" /> targeted to their interests and location.<ref name="WP-2000" /> GEICO was a frequent advertiser. However, the minutes earned could not be carried over to another call, so users would sometimes accrue many minutes of free calling, only to lose them when their intended party was busy or did not answer. Perhaps because of such shortcomings, the FreeWay service soon ended. The company filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in January 2002.<ref>{{cite web |last=Bruno |first=Michael P. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/2002/01/09/3-tech-companies-plan-liquidation/a730ab9c-1fd3-44da-9271-017060988838/ |title=3 Tech Companies Plan Liquidation |work=The Washington Post |date=January 8, 2002 |access-date=June 26, 2025}}</ref> Broadpoint's former URL is no longer associated with the company, and is now made up only of advertising links. Kamel went on to become CEO of Maxamine, a Web analysis company.
A similar service in Sweden, GratisTel, interrupted calls periodically for advertising, and was similarly short-lived.
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [http://telephonyonline.com/mag/telecom_word_sponsors_broadpoints/ "A word from our Sponsors: BroadPoint's unique revenue plan holds water."] From [http://telephonyonline.com/ ''Telephony Online''], September 7, 1998.
Category:Telecommunications companies of the United States Category:Defunct companies based in Maryland Category:Companies that have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Category:Companies that filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2002 Category:Defunct telecommunications companies of the United States