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Free incoming calls to all cellular services!!! |
RMskater
Joined: Oct 12, 2003
Posts: 166
From: Califonia, but now I live in P
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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
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Ayush
Joined: Sep 12, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Hyderabad, india
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In india it is a rule that all incoming calls to gsm phones are free. And this is been here for quite sometime :-)
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RMskater
Joined: Oct 12, 2003
Posts: 166
From: Califonia, but now I live in P
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AH! You are SO lucky!!! The DAMN USA needs to get with the program and let us receive our free calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ethan
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Ayush
Joined: Sep 12, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Hyderabad, india
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...and also free incoming sms :-)
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RMskater
Joined: Oct 12, 2003
Posts: 166
From: Califonia, but now I live in P
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Yeah, we have free incimg SMS also.
Ethan
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Ayush
Joined: Sep 12, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Hyderabad, india
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But, why one of my friends told me some months back that they get charged for incoming texts? She was on cingular.
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jaimingandhi
Joined: Dec 08, 2002
Posts: 152
From: Mumbai, India
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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? ;-)
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RMskater
Joined: Oct 12, 2003
Posts: 166
From: Califonia, but now I live in P
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(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
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moodswinger
Joined: Dec 10, 2001
Posts: 78
From: New York, USA
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=> 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.
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Deanlambert
Joined: Sep 10, 2003
Posts: 466
From: East Yorkshire
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I'm confused on this one.
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moodswinger
Joined: Dec 10, 2001
Posts: 78
From: New York, USA
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If you are referring to my post, I am sorry. What is not quite clear, exactly? |
Deanlambert
Joined: Sep 10, 2003
Posts: 466
From: East Yorkshire
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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
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RMskater
Joined: Oct 12, 2003
Posts: 166
From: Califonia, but now I live in P
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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 ] |
slamEVIL
Joined: Aug 14, 2003
Posts: 370
From: San Diego
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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 ] |
RMskater
Joined: Oct 12, 2003
Posts: 166
From: Califonia, but now I live in P
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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
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Posted: 2004-01-30 04:49
