OT - Cell Service - How They Do It in Europe

[Ivan Avery Frey]

Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> In europe the caller pays for the call, so if you call a cell phone
> (which generally have their own area codes so you can easily tell it is
> a call phone) you know its going to cost a lot more than otherwise.  Of
> course you also pay for all calls since there is no such thing as free
> local calls.
> 
> In north america all phone numbers are considered equal, so if you call
> a local number, it is free, and a further away number costs money to
> call.  If the number happens to be a call phone then the owner of the
> call phone is responsible for the cost of using that cell phone since
> the caller has no way of knowing that they are calling a cell phone.
> 
> 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.
> 
> Whats the cheapest you can get a pay as you go cell phone here, and can
> you get free incoming calls (the answer is no as far as I can tell).
> 
> Competition is good, and europe sure has that now.  20 years ago they
> had only government monopolies on phone service for the most part.
> There certainly isn't any competition in the cell phone market in
> canada anymore.  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.

Lennart I agree wholeheartedly with your message and I have had the same 
experiences in Italy.

There are 4 main cell phone providers in Italy (TIM, Vodafone, Wind, and 
3 or tre). They all use GSM/GPRS across Italy (no CDMA, TDMA crap). All 
four offer UMTS in the major cities and TIM offers EDGE across Italy.

TIM was offering unlimited Internet in off peak hours (5 in evening to 8 
next morning weekdays and all day weekends) for €25 a month.

Now, granted in Europe, population density is greater, so we should 
expect to see a greater cost here. But I still think the setup stinks here.

Consider that my Italian cell phone works everywhere in Italy without 
roaming charges. Only when you exit the country does roaming kick in.

I wonder if there is a way to lobby the powers that be for a more 
rational market in cell phone services.

Ivan.
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