Posted by RMskater
I think that I remember seeing this topic online somewhere (about 3-5 years ago). Does anyone else remember? I remember that the FCC was working on laws regarding both number portability (which we have seen), and free incoming calls (obviously not done).
If I remember correctly, they were debating whether incoming calls should be free (like an incoming landline call), or if they should make the calling party pay for the call (if a landline calls a cell, it's free for the cell, but the landline pays for the call).
Does anyone remember this, or know of any links where I could find more info? I sure hope that this is worked out soon!!!
Thanks!!!
Ethan
Posted by Ayush
In india it is a rule that all incoming calls to gsm phones are free. And this is been here for quite sometime :-)
Posted by RMskater
AH! You are SO lucky!!! The DAMN USA needs to get with the program and let us receive our free calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ethan
Posted by Ayush
...and also free incoming sms :-)
Posted by RMskater
Yeah, we have free incimg SMS also.
Ethan
Posted by Ayush
But, why one of my friends told me some months back that they get charged for incoming texts? She was on cingular.
Posted by jaimingandhi
In india, outgoing international call is about 15 Rupees. thats not even 30 cents. and outgoing national calls are 2 rupees thats about 4 Cents ! Anyone here with cheaper tariffs? ;-)
Posted by RMskater
(I live in the United States). Well, the plan that I have gives 300 minutes for $30. So that's about 10 cents per minute. Although, they have another plan for 600 minutes for $40. That's about 6 cents per minute. Cool. International? I'm not sure about that, though. Incoming messages are free, but outgoing. Hm, 100 for $5.99, 300 for $9.99. There's more, but I can't remember. Sorry, but I don't know the conversion rate. Sorry.
Ethan
Posted by moodswinger
=> RMskater, It is very difficult, if not impossible to make the incoming calls free for cell phones in the US, because cell phones by large do not have their designated area codes (I know only of 917 and 646 in NYC area), but they share area codes with landlines. In other countries, you have to dial a designated area code to reach a particular cell phone and that allows customers to a) know they are going to be charged for those calls and b) to limit calls to cell phones in order to limit expenses.
Anyway, someone has to pay for a call to a cell phone, either the caller (rest of the world) or the called party (U.S.). As a reward to your expenses, you get to have a cell phone with an area code everyone recognizes (I have a friend whose cell's area code is 212, that's pretty cool).
I think that this feature has also significantly contributed to different patterns of cell phone usage in the US and the rest of the world. In most of the world, people will gladly give out their cell phone number, because it's free for them to receive calls and because they often don't have good access to landlines (most families have only one landline, even if they have teenage kids who are ALWAYS on the phone).
In the US people are not so ready to shere their cell phone # for privacy reasons and because they don't want to pay for your calling them. This pattern, however, has started to change dramatically over a past few years with the advent of free, bonus, cell-to-cell, and family minutes.
=> Ayush: Yes, most GSM providers in US will charge even for the incoming messages. T-Mobile used to allow their customers to have 50 incoming messages for free, but now they have abolished that for the new customers. I don't like it, because it sucks and because you really cannot limit incoming messages that easily. If your friends have a habit of forwarding lame jokes, you will 5 cents lighter every time you get one of them. In addition, anyone who hates you can simply go to a T-Mobile web-site, send you 2000 anonymous messages, and you're stuck with a $100 bill you have to pay. I hope this will change soon.
=> Jaimingandhi: I believe rates for calls in India are cheaper than those in the US, but median income is more than proportionately lower. Besides, US customers get incredible deals (particularly with T-Mobile) re. family plans or weekends/nights that significantly drive down call cost (in my case, down to 2cents/minute), not to mention free GPRS. I, however, agree with you that international calls are intollerably expensive, especially since T-Mobile, e.g. owns half the world's GSM market (or something like that).
Cheers.
Posted by Deanlambert
I'm confused on this one.
Posted by moodswinger
If you are referring to my post, I am sorry. What is not quite clear, exactly?
Posted by Deanlambert
It's ok, i understand now. I was refering to the first post. I always thought that the caller said for the call to a mobile, unless you were roaming
Posted by RMskater
Moodswinger,
Wow, that was really helpful!!! Thanks, that helped me learn alot! Thanks. HEY EVERYONE!!! GO HERE TO LEARN ABOUT SONY ERICSSON'S PLAN TO ENABLE BLUETOOTH PHONE OWNERS TO GET FREE INCOMING CALLS!!!
EThan
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[ This Message was edited by: RMskater on 2004-01-30 18:20 ]
Posted by slamEVIL
you guys on tmob are screwed! i'm with cingular with roll-over. so i pay 39.99 for 500min w/ 5000 nights and weekends. what i don't use one month gets "roll-overed" to the next month. so right now i have 1232 minutes to use. that comes out to 3 cents a minute. of course, next month, the price per minute will be lower because more roll-over minutes will be added on.
so i have no problem giving out my cell number. in fact if not for my dsl, i wouldn't even use a land line. thats what all my friends do.
@moodswinger- that's wierd that cell phones don't have area codes in NY. that won't fly here in Cali. we have 35 area codes!!! so my cell's area code is 858 but my wife's is 619. so if i was sitting in the livingroom, and i wanted to call her phone in the bedroom, i would have to dial the area code.
edit
i forgot about the original post. @rmskater- the first cell i got back in 98 had that deal. i don't know why it changed but i think it's because that was before everybody and their mother had a cell phone. do you know how much mony they will loose if they did that now?
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[ This Message was edited by: slamEVIL on 2004-01-30 18:33 ]
Posted by RMskater
That's cool. However, you don't have unlimited nights and weekends. That's the only thing that bothered me about Cingular. Yeah, nights aren't so bad, but what about weekends? I don't know, I just did the math, and 5000 minutes is ALOT, but I'm just worried.
I doubt anyone talks this much, but let's consider an extreme instance. There's a person who talks for 2 hours every night, every day of the month. That's 60 minutes times two (for two hours). Then, that is 120 minutes, and we multiply it by five (for every day of the week). Then we multiply the answer (600 minutes for 5 days, using two hours a night) by 4 for the four weeks in a month. That comes out to 2400 minutes.
Then the weekend comes up. Let's say the person talks for 4 hours on both Saturday and Sunday. Well, that's 240 minutes (4 hours) times two (for both days). That brings us to 480.
When we add it up together, yeah, that's only 2880, but still, I like the security of having unlimited nights and weekends. How about everyone else?
What's your feelings on the matter?
Ethan
Posted by moodswinger
Slam, I beg to differ. Although I agree that roll-over is an extremely useful feature, it is far from being enough to make me change my providers. Here is why:
If you have managed to accrue spare 1300 minutes, each month you are paying for the minutes don't actually need and perhaps would be better off with a less expensive plan. I do not see a purpose of putting minutes in a "bank", even if they do come really cheap. Moreover, your minutes will EXPIRE after 12 months, so eventually you will lose them if you don't use them. I wonder when are you going to use 1300 minutes - unless you start frantically calling everyone and everything on your phone at some point. I, on the other side, do not want to change my calling patterns dramatically just because I do/do not have minutes to spare.
Further, I have free unlimited nigths and weekends and calls to anyone on T-Mobile network (and guess what - most of my friends and relatives are on T-Mobile). Besides, I also get the free internet and data mode and fairly decent international calling and roaming.
On Cingular, you would have to pay for these services a lot more - beginning with detailed billing.
Oh, lest I forget... I got my T610 for FREE + a $150 rebate for 1-yr contract. How much have you cashed in on your phone for a 2-yr agreement?
As you put it nicely... your calls are about 3 cents/minute, mine are 2 cents/minute. You are paying about 50% more than I am, so who is getting screwed?
Then again, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind having roll-over.
PS. In most parts of the USA, cell phones share the area code with the landlines and you don't have to dial area code in order to dial a cell phone #. Only major metro areas have area codes designated for cell phones (NYC has a couple).
=> RMskater - you are absolutely right with your calculation - 5000 min pretty much means unlimited usage in 99.999% of the cases. "Unlimited" is just a marketing ploy.
Posted by slamEVIL
this is fun, it's like "battle of the operators." anyway, @moodswinger, i think you're a little confused about roll-over. not all of the minutes expire after 1 year. by jan 2005, just my unused minutes from jan 2004 will expire. and nobody uses all of their minutes. for example, @rmskater said he gets 300 a month. let's say he uses 250 this month. next month he will have 350 instead of 300 again. then let's say he only uses 250 again. the next month he will have 400. another example would be myself. i was in the hospital/rehab for a month with no cell phone. instead of those minutes going down the drain they were rolled-over. that's why i have so many stored up. and remember, i'm paying 3 cents a minute this month. (which by the way, is more like 30% more rather than 50%.) next month it will be lower. um, internet is free, long distance and roaming are free. i don't know what you mean by detailed billing, 'cause that's free too.
Posted by moodswinger
Let's not make it a war... after all, these carriers cooperate quite well and thanks to their cooperation we both have FREE roaming
I know that rolled over minutes expire month-by-month, but they nevertheless expire.
When I say "internet", I mean GPRS. Is it really free with Cingular? As far as I know, you have to pay $4 for access and additional $7 for 1Mb of data. What about the rates for international calls? All calls to Europe with T-Mobile are 29cents/min.
Believe me, Evil, I have done my homework when my contract was up last month. I could have "rolled over" my numbers to Cingular; instead, I chose to "lose" my numbers and start again with T-Mobile as a new customer... it was simply irresistible. With all the rebates and the profits (I sold one of the phones), cell phone service for my family will be pretty much FREE this year.
But then again... I still wish I had them "roll over" minutes
PS. 3 IS 50% more than 2; 2 is 33%less than 3
[ This Message was edited by: moodswinger on 2004-01-30 20:55 ]
Posted by slamEVIL
yeah you're right, let's not make it a war. real quick, they don't expire month-by-month. but i'm sure you get it right? anyway, to answer your question, cingular has at least 3 different ways of accessing the internet. the one you just mentioned (which is the one i use) is only $7 flat rate. i don't know who told you about the $4 but they're wrong.
that 50% 33% thing you said is so true!
isn't that wierd?
Posted by 701
Look, they r making things really complicated in the US with the cell comnication.Here is simpler: i have all the incoming things FREE , i also pay only for what i send. More, i have a bonus for incoming calls (the more minutes i get called, they would pay me a certain 0.0...$/min). THIS is really cool
Posted by porterg
Couple things. In regards to unlimited inbound, it is not offered for 1 reason: money. The cost of operations vs. revenue recovery is not that different. People want 2 things: more minutes for the money and coverage. Towers are not cheap to put up, nor to operate. Have to pay people to sell service, service the customers, and service the networks. The revenue margins are not high. You can believe me or not.
5000 N&W doesn't sound as good as unlimited N&W, but the reality is that very few people get even sort of close to 5000. Trust me, I see the billing minutes on ALOT of customers. Most don't even approach 1000 N&W. Besides, LD is included.