OT - Cellphone billing

[James Knott]

Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 05:28:04PM -0500, James Knott wrote:
>   
>> Why would they already have that equipment?  A company buys equipment 
>> with the idea of generating revenue with it and that same equipment has 
>> to be amortized over several years.  Where does the money to amortize it 
>> come from?
>>     
>
> If you install equipment that supports call display then you have
> equipment that supports call display.  Whether it transmits it down the
> line to the end user doesn't change the cost of the box at all.  It
> certainly does not cost $5 per month to do so for each customer.
>   

Do cell phone companies charge for call display?  I don't recall seeing 
that on my Rogers bill.
> Given the voice mail system (at least for cell phones) is often limited
> to 5 messages of 60 seconds, the number of users any given voice mail
> system can handle with the size of drives today is just about infinite.
> I don't see how it can be $5 or even $8 in some cases per month to store
> a few KBs of data.
>   

Voice mail is a bit different, in that it requires something to record 
the messages on, whereas call display is simply passing on call info and 
all modern equipment supports it.  I don't have voice mail, as I've 
configured my service to phone home, should I not answer a cell call.

> I am sure there is cost involved in buying and setting up these devices
> in the first place, but given the amount of money one has to pay per
> month for the service in the first place I would think that should
> already be covered.
>   

One thing you're forgetting is that companies are in business to make 
money.  This means they set the rates for whatever they think will give 
them the best profit.  If the customers don't like the price they may 
not take the service or might switch providers.
>   
>> We already have that.  Any GSM vendor, other than Rogers/Fido is someone 
>> reselling services from Rogers.  Is there anyone reselling CDMA from 
>> Bell or Telus.  Back in the days before Rogers bought them, the 1st GSM 
>> network was Fido, which was owned by Microcell.  Microcell also sold 
>> bulk service to other companies.
>>     
>
> I meant a network not controlled by bastards like rogers and bell (never
> dealt with telus personally).
>
> It was a sad thing to see fido be taken over by rogers.
>
>   
Don't forget, some rates, at least for Bell land line are determined by 
tariff.  One thing I find incredible is that touch tone is still a 
separate charge for many people, even though it's now basic service.  I 
suspect this may be, at least partially, due to those poverty activists, 
who insist that pulse lines be available to low income people at a lower 
rate, even though there's no money to be saved in providing a pulse dial 
service and pulse dial only phones are getting scare.



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