Calling Cell Phones Could Cost More

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.

Comments

Europe

[GreenPhreak]

Isn't this how it has been in Europe and other countries since the beginning? I remember it costing a lot more to call someone on a cell phone from a landline when I was in England. Just another one of those things that Americans will have to get used to, that everyone else seems to have acclimated to already.

Re:Europe

[ralfp]

In Europe (and pretty much everywhere else) cell phones are "calling party pays". This means that it costs more to call a cell phone because the caller pays for it.

For example, in Finland each wireless carrier has its own area code, so you know in advance that you will pay more for the call.

The change in the US means that calls to cell phones might become regional or long distance, but the called party still pays. The US is NOT switching to calling party pays (although Verizon tried it in DE a while back, AFAIK).

This is how it works in Europe

[friendofafriend]

If you have a phone in Europe it has a special dial code (07 something). If you call it it costs more than local or even long distance and now makes up a pretty large source of revenue.

(Fot those in EU US cell phones have regular numbers and are called at regular rates, often free from your local area code)

Because of this, you can practically get a phone for free with no contract, so this model has its up sides. Personally, I prefer the US approach, he who has the phone foots the (monthly) bill!

SWITCH!

[clinko]

I'll start this comment by saying this:

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:SWITCH!

[The Good Reverend]

They won't die as long as my reception sucks - I can't get a signal worth anything at my house, and I'm not alone. Instead of the death of land lines, I predict a subtle murging of systems, you'll pay for "service" which will include landlines and cell.

Other places do this, but better...

[boster]

Outside of North America, it is common for the party calling the cell phone to incur the extra cost.

Here's how it works:

• Cell phones get their own area code (thus you KNOW when you're calling a call phone).
• Initiator of a call to/from a cell phone pays the extra cost above and beyond a normal phone call.
• Thus, if you only receive calls (not make them), it can be quite economical (for you).

This is one reason mobiles are more common overseas. They didn't just start as executive toys. For example, workmen on call sites could be given a prepaid phone (with viturally no money on it), and then be reachable.

Re:one more reason...

[tswinzig]

now if i could just get a bogus number for all the times i don't want to give out my cell number for fear of it being sold... ;)

Send me $10 and I'll sell you a bogus number.

Oh, what the hell, I'm feeling charitable today.

(800) 555-1212

Shhhh... keep it quiet, guys.

Wait till you use it in another country

[sh0rtie]

In the UK if i go abroad with my UK cellphone say for arguments sake Spain and you call me from anywhere then you will only pay the standard premium cost (approx 40p per min) but as my phone is officially "roaming" as its in another country, I have to pay for the international part of your call to cover the multiple network operators involved ie: the price of a international call from England to Spain so ineffect its like a reverse charge call !

and you feel ripped off!

a lot of people have been caught out when their friends have called them while they are on holiday and they chat thinking its a regular call until they get home and see their cellphone bill and see hideous charges incurred for other peoples calls, needless to say sales calls get a mouthful of abuse.

shooting themselves in the foot

[fermion]

Land Line telephone companies are really shooting themselves in the foot, at least for residential customers. It is really getting to the point where having a land line for voice communications is actually more expensive and complicated than a cell phone. The kicker of course is the secret 'long distance' toll that the telephone company charges without any warning. No one really knows where the intrastate long distance border is, the telephone company does not warn you that it is a long distance call, and now they want to charge toll on cell phones that may be next door!

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:Another way to rip off consumers

[rwoodford]

I work as a network engineer and I do the routing for one of the major cell phone companies here in the U.S.

To answer your question, until 11/24/2002 phone numbers, for the most part, are given out in 10K blocks (NPA/Nxx) to specific compaines; wireline, wireless, whatever. In theory, if you know the first six digits of the phone number, you can tell if it's wireless or wireline. That is, if you have access to that information (like I do). To the best of my knowledge, I don't think people outside of Telcos have access to this so the point is moot.

After 11/24, all Telcos will be participating in number pooling. Basically we donate numbers back to the pool for other carriers to use (if we're only using 50 numbers out of 10K) and whatever we still use is routed back to us via local number portability. So now even if you had the aforementioned information, it could be invalid. Basically your screwed one way or the other.

To further complicate matters, after 11/24/2003 all numbers will be portable between any carrier within a rate center. So you can move your number from (ex.) Verizon landline to AT&T Wireless to Nextel, to AT&T Local Services...and on and on....as many times as you'd like. By then, it's impossible to know.

Why that solution isn't better

[dachshund]

Outside of North America, it is common for the party calling the cell phone to incur the extra cost.

Oh goody. I get to post my favorite rant on why "caller pays" isn't better. In a nutshell, here's why:

When the person who owns the cellphone pays for their own calls, they have a strong incentive to seek out the cheapest plan they can get. Hence, they put direct pressure on their cellphone company to be more efficient and keep their operating costs as low as possible.

When the person who owns the cellphone doesn't pay for the call, the charges for the call are "reverse-billed" back to the caller. Since the caller isn't a customer of the cellphone company, the cellphone company has far less incentive to keep the reverse-charges low. (Ever notice that collect calls are more expensive than regular long-distance calls? A similar economic principle is at work.) Typically the government steps in to regulate the prices that companies are allowed to charge, and that's rarely as efficient as direct competition.

I'm convinced that over the long-run, the "caller-pays" system will result in higher costs than a "cellphone-owner-pays" system. This depends, of course, on the remaining competitive barriers coming down: in the US, for instance, it's still too difficult to switch from one provider to the other. Hopefully the new regulations which allow cellphone owners to switch providers without losing their phone number will help in this area.

Incidentally, if my explanation didn't make sense, here's a much more detailed explanation.

Even Rougher on the Land Lines in Japan

[kryonD]

We have the same deal with Cell Phones in Japan. All incoming calls are free, and the use of email often negates the need for outgoing calls. And yes, I did say email, not that dinky SMS protocol.

Most folks don't even bother getting a land line since you have to actually purchase the line for about $600.00+. Calling a local land line is about 3 cents per minute and calling a cell phone is around 10 to 12 cents per minute. Cell phones have a completely different prefix, so you won't accidentally get raped on the bill. The flip side of course is that outgoing calls on cell phones run about 20 cents per minute and you won't find any 4000 night/weekend plans around here. My plan is 5000 yen/mo. (about $38 at the current rate) and I get around 200 outgoing minutes excluding the 1 to 2 yen per email charge and my daily web activities checking news and weather. If I have a busy social calendar, which is about 4 dates per week plus assorted work functions, my bill is arround $100.00. I never use my land line for anything more than a link to my 12MBit ADSL provider.