I just saw two articles that caught my eye…
Ars Technica: Europeans may be forced to pay for incoming cell calls
The Register: Should Europeans pay to receive phone calls?
I wasn’t entirely aware that US mobile phone users paid for incoming as well as outgoing calls and the report mentioned in the articles suggests Europe should switch to a similar model
My initial response was NO!
If you read the comments on the article at The Register it gives some commentary on why it works in the US. I do understand that our per-minute call rate is high in comparison so does total call cost work out about the same but it’s just spread between two people?
Let me put forward a scenario and as always any comments are welcome!
Mr Smith is the only MVP in the UK for Microsoft Nothing 2008. Every month he attends his local SBS user group. Everyone there knows Mr Smith is the guy to speak to if you need any help or advice on Microsoft Nothing. Mr Smith is such a good guy he doesn’t mind helping out and gives out lots of advice and probably takes 5 calls a month that average about 30 minutes from fellow professionals
So if we changed our mobile phone pricing structure Mr Smith would have to pay for 150 minutes of incoming calls as he’s such a nice guy.
Is that fair?
I’m not going to pretend to know all the ins and outs of the business models involved here but even if i did, would the typical consumer?
Anyone want to tell me which system is better and why?
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