OT - Cellphone billing

[William Muriithi]

Hi Sorensen,
> The european method of course has made it possible to have a cell phone
> that really is only for emergencies these days for practically no money
> since you can receive calls for free and only pay for the few outgoing
> calls you make.  My parents picked one up last time they went to visit
> family in denmark and for a pay as you go, the phone cost about $300 to
> buy, and then the starter package from a phone company was $20 which
> includes $10 worth of pay as you go, and sets up the voice mail, phone
> number, includes the SIM card, etc.  Money paid lasts for 12 months, and
> the minimum top up is $10, so essentially they can maintain a cell phone
> in Denmark for $10 per year now.  Rather handy given they visit every 3
> years or so, but pay phones have become extinct there so having a cell
> phone is pretty much required.

This is what I have found in any other country I have visited beside N
America.  Communication cost can get really low as just paying the
minimum fee to retain the number active. And as long as you have some
money on the phone, the numer is your for an year.

> All we have are 3 giant old companies all happily
> charging the same high rates for the same service and buying out anyone
> that tries to start competing with them.  Setting up a cell phone
> company is also very expensive here given the low population density
> there just isn't a market for that many companies to build expensive
> networks.
Do you think this will remain true if 802.16e ever establish itself?
And is anybody other than the 3 old companies getting into 802.16e
here in Canada? I am very confident 802.16e will be the dorminant
technology in developing countries, but how it will work in developed
countries is little hard to figure out.
> --
> Len Sorensen
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
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Regards,
William
--
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