How did we, as a country, allow this to happen? How is this OK? If someone calls your cell phone on their cellphone, you’re both paying, am I right?
I own a TracFone, and I buy minutes. So I’m not entirely sure how a “real” cellphone works. All I know is when my brother calls my TracFone on his cellphone, he is paying for the call and I am using up minutes! Why is this allowed?
This doesn’t happen in other countries, right? Honestly I would be a little more comfortable with cellphones if I didn’t feel they were ripping us off in this manner just as blatant as you can be.
I’ve got zero idea why this abomination exists in the US, but you are right, it is pretty much peculiar to you guys… I know for a fact that the receiver of a call does not pay for the call in any of the Israeli networks, and in none of the European networks I have ever used.
This is true of course only as long as you are your home network! A German in Italy will be paying for their incoming calls (and through the nose) – this is what is known as “roaming”, and exists in the US as well, IIRC, above and beyond the base charge you pay for incoming calls.
BTW, this difference is often cited by Telecom experts as one of the primary reasons that Europe is ahead of the US in almost any parameter relating to cellphone usage and adoption.
Same as Noone Special says. Here in New Zealand we don’t pay for incoming calls or texts (SMS). In regard to overseas visitors here, roaming charges apply except for texts, so most of them text or buy local prepay cards. Though I’m not sure what the story is with CDMA networks, but if you’ve got a GSM phone everything’s sweet.
What’s the story with texts? You pay to receive them too?
Yes, typically 10 cents to send or 2 cents to receive, or you can pay a monthly fee for unlimited text messaging.
Let me ask you something…in Europe or wherever, can you get a cell phone for under 50 dollars, pay no monthly fees or anything, and just receive calls? Cuz that would be interesting.
In the USA, you’re paying for the price of your phone being usable on the network., and each person is paying for their own bandwidth usage. It’s a bit different than normal, and is why all cell phones have caller id, so you can choose whether or not to accept the incoming call. At one point, it used to be that the first incoming minute was free, but that is no longer the case.
I was and still am looking for a cell phone and I wondered this very thing. I did a google search for “do you pay for incoming cell phone calls” and noticed some people saying you do not pay for incoming calls on Nextel. I went to their website, looking for a pay as you go deal and my brain promptly froze. So I really can’t tell you if it’s true or not. I’m still looking for a cell phone that costs no where near $30/month because I hardly ever use the phone.
As to why this happens, 1) because U.S. companies don’t want to pay for infrastructure and they are greedy. 2) we let them do this to us.
If the NZ networks are anything like the South African networks (and I believe they are), the caller in this case would pay as if it were a local NZ to NZ call. The reciever would pay the international portion of the call. This makes sense since from the callers perspective they are dialing a local number with potentially the expectation that it would be a local call. The reciever knows he is overseas, so he can just not take the call
Ok, I would still recommend a TracFone, **Montgomery0[/B[. Here is the website: www.tracfone.com.
I simply add minutes when I need them. I don’t generally receive calls on my phone, unless I’m expecting them. I use it mainly for long distance, though quick calls are useful, and it’s good to have for emergencies.
I paid right around $50 for the model - they have several - and I pay no monthly fees. I think it can text message but I haven’t bothered playing with it too much.
My only “requisite” is that I add more minutes by a certain date, which is usually about 18 months away.
Rates - the more minutes you buy in a lump sum, the cheaper it gets. Right now I see 400 minutes on sale for $80. I have to confess, though, the SO fills it up so I never pay attention. 1 to 2x a year I just dump a whole load of minutes in there, usually around 400. I only use so many because my aunt is in Colorado, and I call her weekly.
If you said 60 dollars (about 30 pounds), then yes. I got my mum a pay as you go Nokia from a supermaket for 29.99 pounds on the Vodafone network, and apart from an initial fiver credit put on it (which may have come with the phone, I don’t remember), that’s it.
Yes, pretty much. At 50 dollars and nothing else it will be a low-end phone and it will be locked to your provider for two years, but it’s not difficult to find one. You might have to make a nominal payment from time to time to keep your account alive, but 5 dollar a year or so will do. Of course you can use that money for making calls afterwards.
Yep, as otherwise already said, you would pay your normal rate for the call, I’d pay the international part of the call, and it ain’t cheap, even Vodafone says to direct your calls to voice mail with a message saying you’re out of the country :rolleyes:
crazyjoe, yes you can just buy a cheap prepay phone and just use it to receive calls, but Vodafone require you to put $20 credit on it every 90 days or you’ll lose all your credit, and credit is required within 365 days of your last top up or else your number will be cut off.
None of our phones are “locked” either, but then we’ve only got one GSM carrier and one CDMA carrier. Phones are available on the “grey” market, often quite a bit cheaper than from the offical agents, just put your SIM card in and away you go.
But our rates are lots more than most of the world, for Vodafone I pay NZ$65/month for 100 minutes and 20 cents per text. After 100 mins, it’s about 44 cents/min. Unused minutes aren’t carried over either. Prepay is 49c to $1.39c/min, depending on plan, time, and network called.
My feeling is that while cell phone plans vary significantly between the USA and the rest of the world, non-business users end up still pay about the same. Although, this may not be the case in the lower and higher brackets.
One of the biggest things that Americans have is free night & weekend minutes. While not very useful for business users, this pretty much covers 80% of my phone calls. Also, often intra-network calls are free for both users (depends on the service). One of my aggravations in Europe was dealing with that night minutes were not free. Which is part of the reason that people text a lot there.
Yes, on the other hand, we pay for incoming calls & text messages. So, it kind of evens out. Or so my experience seems to indicate.
Yes you can, with no requirement for minimum credit etc. And they still make a profit: calls to the phone will be a higher cost, and a portion of that will be finding its way to your phone company. In the UK, for example, you know you’re dialling a mobile (and will be charged as such) because the number begins 07, whereas all landlines begin 01 or 02.
I think there are still a few prepaid cell phone plans in which the user does not pay for incoming calls, but has to pay a lot if they use up their prepaid minutes (as in calling back!).
I still think it is completely and utterly incomprehensible to make us pay for incoming calls, and I’m glad to see I’m borne out. i wonder what we can do to make them quit it?
That’s something I forgot about, all cell numbers here start 02x and call from landlines to cell are dear, IIRC 70c/min, but that’s going to be regulated down. US cells just use the normal area code etc don’t they; callers don’t know if the number belongs to a cell and it doesn’t cost them extra for the call?
While it would annoy me to pay for incoming calls, there is a bit of logic to both systems and I’d guess for people who make and receive calls equally they would end up paying the same under either system. However in NZ we’ve got only 2 carriers, one who also owns the landline system. There’s no real competition between them which puts NZ at the high end for telecom charges in the OECD.
I’m on Verizon’s “Free-Up” plan. I got the phone free when I signed up back in 2001. I pay for outgoing and incoming calls. It costs $15 a month for a limited amount of minutes. But, I almost never use it–I have it “just in case”. Right now, I have a credit on my account of something like $140 dollars and growing.
