Foreign Dopers (Especially Germans): Does It Cost More To Call My US Cell Phone?

Factual Questions
1

It seems that in Germany, it costs a lot for someone with a land-line to call someone with a cell phone.

I have a land-line at home, but gave out my cell phone number to some German friends and they all refuse to call it. There are quite a few “cheap” ways to call the USA now…some as low as 5 cents a minute and those German friends do like to chat.

But they swear their phone bills would be outrageous if they called my cell phone.

Is that true? And how does the German phone system even know it is dialing an American cell phone number vs land-line?

2

I don’t know about Germany.

In New Zealand, when you dial another country, the rate is the same regardless of whether the receiving phone is a cell or landline.

If you dial from a cell phone though, the costs can be enormous.

Also it’s hard on the batteries dialling overseas from a cell.

:slight_smile:

3

I actually got into a bit of financial strife due to a misunderstanding with a Telecom rep about call charges.

I asked: “What is the rate to call Asutralia from a cell phone?”

She said: “It’s the same rate as landline, $5 for as long as you like”

Me: “Cool, no wurries eh?”

$300 phone bill later, it turns out she thought I was calling to a cell, not from.

Luckily, I explained the situation, and the offending call was removed from the bill.

4

AFAIK my phone company (Telekom) does not distinguish between calls from Germany to US land line and US fixed phone numbers. It would be difficult to do this as US cell phones have numbers under regular area codes.

5

sorry, I meant to say “between calls from Germany to US land line and US cell phone numbers”.

I assume your friends are mistaken; they probably generalize from calls from land line to mobile phones being more expensive for domestic calls.

6

I’m pretty sure the billing’s the same.

The cell phone plans I’ve seen in Europe operate under a different model than American ones. First, all mobiles I’ve seen have their own area code, depending on the provider. Second, when you call a mobile, the owner of the mobile does not get charged for a call. Or for text messages (SMSes) received.

All the subscription plans I’ve seen here in the US charge the cell phone user for both outgoing AND incoming calls and text messages (perhaps there are exceptions; I think prepaid phones don’t do this, but I could be wrong.) Therefore, the person making the call to the cell is not charged extra. I assume this is why there is no difference in calling a mobile phone in the US, as the person receiving the call pays for the service, not the other way 'round.

Otherwise, it is a bit more expensive to call a German mobile from the US than a German land line. The former can be around 15 cents a minutes, while the latter is around 2-3 cents per minute (using prepaid phonecards.)

7

You may well be right about the charging being different when calling Germany from the US compared to calling the US from Germany, but the logic used might not be right.

Australia uses the same model as Europe, different prefix depending on provider and the callee does not get charged for incoming calls. A call to Australia has the same rate regardless of the type of phone being called though.

8

Well, with the pre-paid cards I use, it costs me 17 cents per minute to call a cell phone in Australia vs. 2.2 cents per minute land line.

I get my cards through this service:

http://www.phonecards.com

If you select USA in the “Calling From:” field, when you pick either Australia or Germany, you have a choice between cellular and landlines, and the rates differ dramatically.

If you reverse the From and To fields, you will find there are no distinctions between US cellular and land lines.

So there is a difference in price between me calling an Australian cellular number and a normal number. ALTHOUGH, I suspect, if I were not using calling cards but instead one of those price-gouging landline providers, there would not be a difference in price. When I called overseas on a payphone, I found this to be the case. It was $1 for eight minutes to Europe, regardless of type of phone being called.

9

Ok, thanks. It doesn’t seem to work applying other countries policies. We really need someone from Germany who can quote some rates.

10

Here is a current comparison of call rates from Germany to the US (prices shown are in Euro-cent per minute, valid Monday to Friday, only pricing plans where you do not need to sign up with the respective provider are displayed).

It seems that some telephone companies charge slightly more for calls to Alaska and Hawaii, but none quotes different rates for calling cell phones.

11

Those phone cards I linked to are available in Germany. I assumed this was one of the “many cheap ways to call the US” mentioned by the OP. At any rate, I don’t think there can be a distinction made due to the fact that no separate area codes exist for US customers. (And also for the fact that it costs the same to call cell phones or land lines within the US, something not true with all the other countries I mentioned.)