Text 11408, 90 rader
Skriven 2005-08-04 17:32:24 av Ross Cassell (1:123/456)
  Kommentar till text 11403 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Cell phone cost
=======================
Hello Michiel!

04 Aug 05 12:21, you wrote to me:

 MV>>> Mine is EUR 9.50 and that includes tax. And I think I pay too
 MV>>> much...

 >> See my message to Paul on this aspect.

 MV> We may be comparing apples and oranges. Over here there are also
 MV> service plans that include free minutes. Not attractive for me as I do
 MV> not use the cell phone very much.

Some of the providers here and other companies offer what they call pre-paid
service, tracfone is big in this arena, person buys the phone outright, pays a
modest fee for activation, then they buy minutes like you can LD calling cards.

On the flip side, most providers sell the plans with the phone, for instance my
Motorola V400 camera phone was sold to me by Cingular at a discount, in
exchange, I am under a 2 year contract with them, got less than a year left..
Afterwards I can continue the monthly plan or upgrade the phone, I will
probably upgrade next spring to one of them Motorola Razr phones.

If someone isnt after a real flashy phone, they can even get one for free in
exchange for a one to two year contract.

Now the downside is that if they dont fullfill the contract, there is a hefty
early termination fee, but to maintain the contract, all one has to do is
maintain service. However no one is doing any arm twisting, no one should
commit to a arrangement if they cant fullfill the obligations..

 MV> The number of people that do not have a fixed line any more is growing
 MV> however. Especially among the younger generattion. For them these
 MV> "bundles" are attractive.

Yes many are doing that here.

 MV>>> Here in Europe we do not have subscriptions that include
 MV>>> roaming. If one leaves the country one can use the cell phone,
 MV>>> but one pays between one and three Euro a minute for a call.

 >> Which could add up to more than the 120.00/yr if one travels
 >> alot and is a chatterbox.

 MV> Indeed. And these outrageous roaming fees annoy the European
 MV> Commission. They keep saying they should go down as they are a stand
 MV> in the way for European integration. But it seems they are unable to
 MV> do something about it. Free enterprise and all that...

Well if a European Citizen is using Vodafone for instance, Vodafone cannot
guarantee that one of its customers are going to always be wandering around in
a network they administer, so they have agreements with other companies and
there are fee's involved when this happens.

 MV> A cell phone call within the The Netherlands is some 20 cents/minute.
 MV> Calling from my fixed line to most destinations in Europe is some 10
 MV> cents a minute. So why does an international cell phone call have to
 MV> cost between five and ten times the sum of a local cell phone call and
 MV> a fixed line international call?

Good question..

On landline phones here, in state LD used to cost more than out of state
calls..

 MV> We are being ripped off by the telecoms and they don't even bother to
 MV> deny it. One would expect competition to bring the fees down to more
 MV> realistic values, but for some reason that does not work.

This is why I choose to have a calling plan, I may not use or ever use the
minutes I have, I aint a chatterbox, but better to have a plan than the hassle
of per minute charges as you describe.

 MV>>> So what happens if you leave your home service area? Does it
 MV>>> stop working or do you pay a lot for the calls?

 >> I would be charged the roaming fee's.

 MV> Ah, so it basically works the same as uit does here then.

Yup.

==
Ross
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