TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime Message at a Time

Re: Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime Message at a Time

jmeissen@aracnet.com
17 Jan 2005 22:19:30 GMT

In article <telecom24.22.7@telecom-digest.org>, Tony P.
<kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net> wrote:

> The issue is that for wire line service the U.S. has always been
> caller pays except for WATS 800 services in which the called party
> pays.

Not entirely true. The caller pays for his basic service, and calls to
numbers within his calling area are free (except for those poor souls
who had metered service). The only time the caller paid for actually
placing a call would be for toll calls. That's the way it's always
been in the nearly half-century that I've been using the phone.

The idea of having to pay extra to call the person across the street
because their phone is a cell phone instead of a land line is
ridiculous.

> That a cell user pays for incoming calls is ridiculous and flies in
> the face of nearly a century of telecom practice in the United States.

I always saw that as the cost of using the infrastructure. As
capacity increases and build-up costs are amortized that's becoming
less of an issue. Only heavy users ever actually pay additional costs
for airtime anymore.

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