Text 984, 73 rader
Skriven 2006-05-08 09:53:00 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
    Kommentar till text 977 av Philip Lozier (1:267/169)
Ärende: none
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Hello Philip.

07 May 06 15:56, you wrote to me:

 PL>>> People would really love that free inbound on cell phones here.

 MvdV>> And people here would love to make free local calls *to* a cell
 MvdV>> phone.

 PL> I can see why they would.

Of course. People love free calls.

 MvdV>> The catch of course is that in both cases it is not "free". In
 MvdV>> our case the airtime is paid by the caller, in your case it is
 MvdV>> paid by the callee. TANSTAAFL.

 PL> I'm a little lost there... maybe the translation or me being tired.

Nothinhg in life is free. Some things may *appear* to be free, but they aren't.
*Someone* has to pay.

 PL> Here, the person with the landline phone pays for absolutely nothing
 PL> by those who have unlimited service on their phones, and rightfuly so.

Of course. But is that "unlimited service" really unlimited? Do they get free
international calls? Didn't think they would. Her we too have these "unlimited"
deals too. I canb get one from my provider for EUR 10 a month. The catch is
that it this "unlimited" deal is limited to calls between 19:00 and 07:00 to
fixed numbers in The Netherlands....

 PL> In the case of mobile phones both in and outbound calls are paid for
 PL> by the mobile phone owner. I don't think users of home phones should
 PL> be required to pay to contact somebody on a mobile phone, as the
 PL> mobile user has chosen that as a luxury in their life... if anybody
 PL> should pay for that, it should be the mobile phone owner.

To that I could say that it is the caller who chooses to make use of it. When I
am not at home, the caller could leave a message on my answering machine and
wait for me to call back. Or he can send me a postcard. Or... if he wishes to
speak to me NOW, he can call my cell phone. His choice... he pays...

 PL> On the other hand, free inbound to mobile phones would be a good thing
 PL> on the part of the mobile owner IMO...

But you realize I hope that you can not have it *both*. Calls to a cell phone
cost more than calls to a fixed line - and *someone* has to pay for it. If
calls to a cell phone would be free for both the caller and the callee, the
Cell phone companies could not make any money.

 PL> more people would get them, and in the long run the cell providers
 PL> would make more money while easing costs on the individual phone
 PL> owners.

To make more money the cell phone compaNies need more people that *pay* for the
calls. Making incoming calls free without charging the caller would on;y get
them more freeloaders. One can not make money on freeloaders.

 PL> Some peope would try to say "everybody" here has a cell phone, but
 PL> that is far from realistic. Not even half of the population actually
 PL> has one.

Over here everybody *has* a cell phone. Even my 86 year old mother has one.
Penetration is over 100%. That means that some people have more than one and a
few, very few do not have one. Mainly the very young and the very old. And most
people leave their cell phones on all the time.

The strategy of charging the caller seems to work...

Michiel

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