Text 11449, 87 rader
Skriven 2005-08-05 09:26:38 av Roy Witt (1:379/45)
  Kommentar till text 11434 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Cell phone cost
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>>>> The number of people that do not have a fixed line any more is
>>>> growing however. Especially among the younger generattion. For
>>>> them these "bundles" are attractive.

>>> Yes many are doing that here.

>> I do that. No sense in being tied to a land line, when cell
>> phones work every where.

> Cost. Calling via land line is much cheaper than calling via a cell phone. A
> call over the fixed line from here to Amsterdam is less than two cents a
> minute.

Cost be damned. I pay for the convenience of having a phone wherever I go.
Bedroom, kitchen, garage, downtown, Seattle to Miami and San Diego to Portland,
ME. When we totaled our car in the middle of a rainstorm in nowhere Kansas,
help was just a cell phone call away. The other day, when my battery was so
dead it wouldn't start the engine in my Chevrolet pickup while parked in front
of a Ford dealership, a jump was just a cell phone call away. When I'm at the
grocery store and forgot what Nancy sent me there to get, she's only a cell
phone call away, no matter where she is. When she wants me to do something for
her or meet her for lunch, I'm only a cell phone call away. Hell, it's better
than 2mtr handie talkies.

>Over here receiving calls on the cell phone is free except when one is abroad.
> The "air time" is paid for by the caller. As a consequence it is much more
>expensive for others to call you if you only have a cell phone. Up to ten time
> as expensive. So you won't get many calls...

And I think just the opposite here. Accept for my friend, Andy, everyone I know
uses cell phones almost exclusively. Andy can't afford to buy a cell phone, so
he's stuck with a land line. Frankly, if he didn't have to have the landline,
he wouldn't have it either. Since I'm long distance from him, I've taught him
to call me, and with caller ID on my cell, I won't pickup the call. I'll just
wait and call him back, saving him the LD charges that are free for me. Night
before last, I talked with Dale Ross, cell phone to cell phone, for over an
hour. I don't know if he's on the same provider; if he is, then the call was
free and didn't even use up any of my 'anytime' minutes. He's on a job in
Tennessee and I'm in Texas, so it was also LD, at no cost.

>>>> A cell phone call within the The Netherlands is some 20 cents/minute.

>> And Dossche thought the US was expensive.

>That's the top rate. You can get much lower rates but then the montly fee goes
> up.

Right. Compensating for the lower by the minute costs.

>> If he used up my alloted 450 minutes, he'd pay more than
>> twice my monthly rate.

>If one plans to use that much one goes for a different plan. I only use my cel
>phone for emergencies and short calls. So I went for a plan with a low monthly
> fee and relatively high price per minute for the calls.

I think Cingular Wireless is the only provider that rolls your minutes over if
you don't use them. I have 1579 minutes in my roll over account. I'll probably
never use them, but it's nice to know that they're there if I need them. With
Verizon, if you go over your anytime minutes, they cost you 45cents/min. One
reason why I switched. I had 500 anytime minutes with them.

>>>> Calling from my fixed line to most destinations in Europe is some 10
>>>> cents a minute. So why does an international cell phone call have to
>>>> cost between five and ten times the sum of a local cell phone call and
>>>> a fixed line international call?

>> Equipment and international treaties.

> Bullshit. The same applies for international calls via land lines. It's the
> same lines actually that interconnect the providers. So how come these
>"administration fees" for an international mobile call are ten times those for
> an international land line call?

As you know, wireless to landline requires a modem. Wireless equipment costs a
bunch more than landline, plus the maintinence. Granted, the wires they use
cost a pretty penny and require some maintinence, but that cost is amortized
over 50 years.

> I tell you why: the providers see an opportunity to rip us off and get
away > with it...

If they have a monopoly, as most landline providers do, then I'd agree with
you.

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