Calling Cell Phones Could Cost More 328
tusixoh writes "CNN.com reports on another reason to keep a close eye on your phone bill. This fall, a subtle realignment in America's phone systems could cause a dramatic increase in what we pay to call cell phones that were once considered local now incur higher toll charges from landlines. The report states that it is unclear how many customers will be affected by these changes. No phone company would provide details on where people could be affected." Update: 10/25 12:31 GMT by M : The IP list carried a couple of informative articles on this: the original situation, and the informed commentary.
one more reason... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Europe (Score:4, Insightful)
No, I don't "have" to get used to it. Why the hell are we tolerating this telephone cartel? Didn't we have a big antitrust lawsuit about this crap?
SWITCH! (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm cheap.
I had no features added to my land line and made VERY FEW long distance calls. Either way my bill came out to around 30+ bucks. No caller ID, No Call Waiting, Nothing.
So... I decided to switch to a Cell Phone. It's only 42 bucks WITH TAX. The key is WITH TAX. With nights & weekends I'm always on the phone at night & costs nothing.
The point of my story:
Land lines are going to die!.
I have no desire to ever have a land line. Right now it's just cablemodem & Cell phone. That's all I need. I don't even have a dial-up.
My thoughts...
Re:Europe (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, but when I was in France and Germany last year, all cell phones had free incoming minutes to compensate... I doubt we'll get that luxury here.
*thwack*... Is that the sound of the consumer getting screwed again?
hmm.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:As Cell Plans Get Cheaper (Score:2, Insightful)
It's not the land line telcos charging more money, it's the cellular phone companies responsible for the fee increases:
Because of differences in how wireless networks are set up, wireless carriers don't need to get phone numbers in every local rate center. So your cell phone could have a number from a rate center distant from your home.
Increase in cell charges = good. Here's why... (Score:4, Insightful)
Guess what? In the past 5 minutes at least 5 cells phones have rang! This is disturbing to those of use trying to work.
On a more serious note. Maybe higher charges would make the inappropriate use of cells phones less common. I've seen numerous car accidents caused by people on cell phones who weren't paying attention to what they were doing.
Maybe it'll also mean less phones ringing during movies!
Here's one grumpy nerd hoping...
Will probably keep rising... (Score:2, Insightful)
Most cell phones have free LD anyways (Score:2, Insightful)
The importance of phones (Score:2, Insightful)
I thought I didn't need a phone until I had to live without one for two years (couldn't afford the outrageous prices on campus.) Try living without a phone if you need to get your car repaired/towed, for example. Or if you need to get in touch with someone who doesn't have a computer. It's really difficult. A pay phone is not always the answer, because sometimes people need to call you back.
Re:SWITCH! (Score:1, Insightful)
RTFA!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Increase in cell charges = good. Here's why... (Score:4, Insightful)
busy working awaying posting messages on
All the more reason to use a cell phone (Score:2, Insightful)
Calling Party Paying (Score:4, Insightful)
at least here in England (and Europe I presume from reading the other comments) the calling party pays. Which makes sense. You make the call, you pay for it. I don't want to pay for YOUR DECISION to call me! I primarily don't use my phone to call people, instead, I use it for text messages and for recieving calls. Thus, I am quite happily able to live off £10 of pre-paid credit for months on end (i get free txts) - which suits my meagre budget just fine.
ppl in the US should just stop whining and accept the fact that the most of the other continents are charging more for mobile calls - you guys were just spoilt :-p *pouts*
Wow, you're an asswipe! (Score:2, Insightful)
Cell phones come with an "off" switch these days.
shooting themselves in the foot (Score:5, Insightful)
For instance, in Texas basic phone service is around $20 a month. That gets you local calls in a local metropolitan area(not the greater metropolitan area), or, if you are in a rural area, perhaps a 10-15 mile radius. If you call outside that small area, you are charged a long distance toll that can easily be twice the interstate long distance toll. You can avoid this toll for the small fee of around $30 a month. If you want the other services, like caller ID, voice mail, etc, that will cost $40. The total, with taxes, is well over $100.
Why again do we have a residential land line? For less than $100 I can get plenty minutes, all the services, plus free long national long distance on my cell phone. I like having a land line so I can have a place that telemarketers and other annoying persons can call, not to mention the DSL. That is sort of worth $25 a month. But $30 more a month to avoid a toll for calling next door. That is crazy.
Re:Wait till you use it in another country (Score:3, Insightful)
It may be someone else's call, but YOU'RE the one that decided to take your phone to another country. Since your phone number is still the same, the calling party has no way of knowing where your phone is at any given time (unless you tell them, of course). Say if you go to another country, and someone calling you does not know that, why should they pay long distance charges? As far as they're concerned, it's still a local number.
The same applies to my land line. If I forward my calls to the hotel where I'm staying in another state (I'm in the US) and someone calls me, *I* get charged the long distance for forwarding the call from my regular number. This makes sense since I am the one who decided to be somewhere else. Why should the cell system be any different?
Re:NZ too (Score:4, Insightful)
Text messages are ridiculously high, however thats because of a stupid uniformed easily led market (teens).
Normal phone's have a bandwidth of upto 9600bps (at least thats what I get using my phone as a modem). Thats 4.2Mbytes an hour. It costs me arround £1.20 ($2) for a one hour call, or 50 cents/megabyte. This is on a limited, highly contested frequency. A far cry from text message costings. Yes text's rake it in for phone companies, however 50 cents a megabyte isnt too bad.
It doesnt seem fair to charge a receipitent for a call. Think about it, if I dont like you I set a computer to phone you 24/7, and you have to pay for it! Give me the worldwide standard instead of one of the u.s. proprietry systems, any day.
Another way to rip off consumers (Score:2, Insightful)
This is just another way to rip off consumers by having them run up charges on their phone bill without knowing it until after the fact.
Re:Wow, you're an asswipe! (Score:3, Insightful)
And then the boss complains that your cellphone is off when he tries to reach you on the weekends / your vacation / etc. I know plenty of people who have gotten yelled at for turning their cellphones off (no matter when they were turned off).
Re:Europe (Score:4, Insightful)
Why doesn't the consumers (that would be you americans) question these policys? IMHO, it should be free to receive a call - that's sorta the idea with the cell phone tech, isn't it? To be "available for anyone at any time" ?
Re:As Cell Plans Get Cheaper (Score:1, Insightful)