Text 8932, 85 rader
Skriven 2010-06-29 10:31:03 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
   Kommentar till text 8769 av Dale Shipp (1:261/1466.0)
Ärende: Cellphone woes
======================
17 Jun 10 23:04, Dale Shipp wrote to Roy Witt:

 RB>> There's no such thing as paying for "air time" here.

 DS> It isn't free.  You pay for it, one way or the other.

You pay for a lot of things; cell phones, extra minutes, taxes, etc.. But
you don't pay for airtime directly. It's not like your bill has a space
dedicated to the 'air time used'...OTH, minutes used will give you an idea
of how much air time you've used. What Bob thinks is that we pay extra for
air time, which we don't.

 RW>> When I read my monthly bill, it says nothing about air time. What it
 RW>> does give me is an accounting of how I used my minutes. After each
 RW>> item the cost always says $.00...there can be page after page of the
 RW>> minutes accounting, and there will never be a charge incurred,
 RW>> unless I go

 DS> And does that accounting include both incoming and outgoing calls?
 DS> Is it simply an accounting of on-the-air time?

As above, you can relate air time to minutes used. Yes, there is an
accounting for incoming as well as outgoing minutes. All of which is paid
in the monthly fee. However, you are credited with so many minutes and
other services in that fee too.

 RW>> over my rolled over 3400 plus my 400 minutes for day usage and the
 RW>> 5000 minutes allowed for nights and weekends. Can you say 8800
 RW>> minutes/month at no cost when I use them?

 DS> But at cost when you pay for them.

Some of them were paid for a year ago. They 'rollover' after 11 months.
But there's always more added come the first of next month, so the average
stays the same. The 5000 night and weekend minutes don't cost any more
than my monthly fee and are free to use from 7pm to 7am or all day and
night on weekends.

 RW>> I can call Joe in Canada and I will only reduce the amount of
 RW>> minutes in my account. They're paid for in bulk and can be used by
 RW>> initiating a call and/or receiving a call. There is never a
 RW>> cost/minute here, unless

 DS> IOW, you pay for incoming and outgoing -- contradicting what you said
 DS> above.

They're paid for in the monthly fee, no extra cost when you use them.

 RW>> you buy and use one of those pre-paid phones (but then you don't
 RW>> receive all of the bells and whistles of having a real cell phone).
 RW>> If

 DS> Why should people pay for bells and whistles they have no use for.

Really OLD people may not have a use, no, they havn't any idea what the
bells and whistles are or how to use them. They really don't need a phone,
let alone a cell phone.

 DS> For some of us, the limited cost pre-paid phone is the least
 DS> expensive way to satisfy our needs -- namely to have a cell phone for
 DS> those rare times when we need to make a call from a remote location.

Since there are no 'pay phones' anymore, that's a given. Others have a use
for their cell phones extras, like text messaging or browsing the net.
Cell phones are all in the eye of the beholder, where one person has no
use for it other than to make that one time remote call, others can't let
go of the convenience of their cell phone and all of its features.

 RW>> Air time is not billed in the states. Both of us were talking about
 RW>> minutes used or minutes in the tank (unused minutes). In the US,
 RW>> minutes and fractions thereof are 'deducted' from an allowance of
 RW>> minutes you're allowed to use per month without incurring any extra
 RW>> costs.

 DS> But you neglect to point out what you paid for that air time in the
 DS> first place.   Probably a fee of $30 to $70 per month.

Do you expect to take that accumulated amount with you when you die? Your
heirs will probably waste it on 'air time' when you croak...

                R\%/itt

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