Text 31909, 157 rader
Skriven 2009-04-30 12:23:55 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
  Kommentar till text 31893 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Message prices
======================
30 Apr 09 07:50, Robert Bashe wrote to Roy Witt:

 RB> [SMS rates]

 RW>>>> You can do a few messages per month for 20 cents each or you can
 RW>>>> sign up for unlimited text messaging for $4.99/month.

 RB> [...]

 RW>>>> I'm glad I don't have to live with such a complex system.

 RB>>> Instead, you just pay (for SMS) around twice what we do in Germany.
 RB>>> We used to have that kind of system too, before the discounters got
 RB>>> to work.

 RW>> How does 'unlimited' SMS text messaging for $5/mo equate to twice
 RW>> what you pay?

 RB> I note you mentioned _two_ rates above.

I mentioned two methods, one of which was an incentive to pay the monthly
fee for unlimited texting. 20 messages in a month can add up to the
monthly fee for unlimited messaging. i.e. voting by text message for your
(not literally) favorite 'American Idol' every week could add up to 40
messages/month, easy. This week there were a total of 47 million votes for
5 candidates, low man out.

 RB> As most people except the kiddies don't constantly send SMS messages
 RB> and thus don't use a monthly rate (why use a prepaid SIM if you're
 RB> going to do that anyway?),

Prepaid SIMs here don't have the capability, for one. When I was working,
I text messaged all day long. Some of it was for work purposes, some of it
was for my own private business (not literally). Since it was unlimited
texting, my employer was paying the bill and didn't mind, it was great to
have.

 RB>  my comment was based on the $0.20 you mentioned, around twice the
 RB> rate we now pay for an SMS.

Yeup...but that is the incentive rate here. If you don't text but a few
messages a month, that isn't a high cost. If you do more than 15 or 20,
it's time to pay for the unlimited texting.

 RB>>> At any rate, this is also the kind of thing we have here - assuming
 RB>>> no SIM lock on the (subsidized) phone to force you to use a
 RB>>> specific provider,

 RW>> Most phones can be 'unlocked' to work on more than one provider's
 RW>> system. The only thing you need then is a SIM from the carrier of
 RW>> choice.

 RB> Although it's true that most phones can be "unlocked", the procedure
 RB> is often difficult and requires special equipment and programs.

For $10, you can get it unlocked thru an unlocking facility, right over
the air. Takes less than an hour from the time your payment is credited to
his account via PayPal. All he needs is the IMEI number of your phone.

 RB> If you have someone near you who can do the job and you can bring the
 RB> phone over to them, this can be simple. But if you have to send it
 RB> off somewhere, the job can become more expensive than it's worth to
 RB> remove the lock.

Old school, Bob.

 RB> I might add that privately "unlocking" a phone is illegal in some
 RB> countries, such as Germany (that means that you don't wait the usual
 RB> two-year "locking period", after which you get the unlocking code
 RB> free from the provider - it costs you around EUR 100 before that -
 RB> but unlock the phone yourself or have it unlocked), but perfectly
 RB> legal in others, such as the Netherlands. I don't know the legal
 RB> situation on this in the States.

It's not illegal to do so in the states. In fact, I've taken a new phone
aquired from other than provider and had them burn and install a new SIM.
One doesn't even need to do that, if they already have a registered SIM.
Just put it in the phone and you're ready to go.

 RB>>> Only one difference here: you don't buy "prepaid minutes" for a
 RB>>> SIM, but "load" it with a certain amount of money (EUR 10, 15, and
 RB>>> 30 being common) using a code you buy from a store or vending
 RB>>> machine.

 RW>> Which is 'written' onto a mag strip on the back of a credit card
 RW>> type of card.

 RB> May be in the States, but not here. These are so-called "scratch
 RB> cards" here, where you have to scratch the cover off a field
 RB> containing a numerical code. The code is then entered into the phone
 RB> after dialing the number of the provider, and the money is credited
 RB> to the SIM card in the phone.

That works here too.

 RW>> The pay-as-you-go (PAYG) Motorola I bought didn't get a chance to be
 RW>> used as a PAYG phone. It was put into service on my existing account
 RW>> SIM card.

 RB> No problem as long as the phone has no SIM lock.

I've never seen or heard of a phone like that.

 RW>> To program it for PAYG, it's PAYG SIM has to be activated by the
 RW>> provider and then you have to call the phone number on the 'minutes'
 RW>> card you buy and the phone gets programmed over the air. I've never
 RW>> done this, however.

 RB> Interesting system, and similar to what we have here except you get a
 RB> code instead of a phone number on the card, and you buy a certain
 RB> "credit" in Euro instead of minutes. But I'm a little confused here:
 RB> is what I call a "prepaid" SIM the same as your "PAYG SIM", or are we
 RB> talking about different things?

They call it 'Pay as you Go' calling. AFAIK, no SIM card is locked. I've
taken a prepaid phone's SIM out of the pay as you go phone and have used
it in one of my non-payg phones.

 RB> In Germany, you buy a prepaid SIM card either on the Internet or in a
 RB> shop, and must provide your personal data (name, address, birthdate
 RB> and in a shop your personal ID number) to do this - a legal
 RB> requirement intended to make "anonymous" cellphone calls difficult.
 RB> The purpose is to reduce criminal use of cellphones.

Your phones don't have the feature that allows ID number blocking? i.e.
all of my phones can be set to not show the number I'm calling from.

There's also another feature to defeat that, which disallows blocked phone
numbers from ringing your phone.

 RB> At any rate, your new prepaid SIM (bought with a certain starting
 RB> balance generally ranging from EUR 5 to EUR 10) is activated as
 RB> bought, or by making one call to the provider's computer (I've had
 RB> both kinds) without any need for entering anything - just the call
 RB> activates the SIM.

Similar to unlocking it.

 RB> You can also buy "packages" of a (usually simple, cheap) SIM-locked
 RB> phone with the SIM of some provider. These are relatively cheap
 RB> (subsidized), but lock you into an expensive rate for two years.

Man...they've got you coming and going.

 RB> Apparently the situation in the Netherlands is different, as Michiel
 RB> has noted that no identification is required to buy a prepaid SIM
 RB> there.

Nor here.

                R\%/itt




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