Advice for calling US Mobile Phone?

I would never consider using so much for a mobile phone. So what's cheap and what's expensive is relative. Since early 2003 I have used on the average two euros a month for phone bills. Average use of airtime has been 144 minutes a month. (counted from the phone logs).

Osmo

And I still do not see why the cost of calling a mobile from a a landline is relevant when one can call with a mobile.

So? I do not care of the carriers. I care what it costs to me.

Osmo

Here the law prevents bundling phones with connections and long contracts (in the latter I am not sure though if it is really law). People here are free to switch whenever they wish keeping the number. As the result the cost of call to foreign network is well below the termination fee, sometimes it is almost half of it. Also the termination fees have dropped significantly from around 13 c/min to 6.8-10 c/min.

Osmo

Here removing the man is considered on 3G phones. The removing should be temporary. So many temporary decisions end up being permanent so I am not that keen on seeing it lifted. The problem with 3G is not the cost of the handsets but operators not giving good enough plans. They give the same as with GSM so why bother.

I have no interest in paying for anyone's handset in my phone bills.

And just how many of those studies have studied the situation in Finland?

I agree they should be limited. I am not exactly sure of the powers the regulators have but in general they prefer negotiations instead of dictating the prices. However, the termination fee is not that much an issue as the calls already cost less. The fact that we have a separation between service and network operators confuses the issue even though all the three network operators have their own service operator.

Osmo

I am not. Thiose who say that CPP always leads to higher prices are.

Osmo

That's because they're right.

Ivor

Sure, but it's not just the GSM carriers which have these peak restrictions. All the major companies appear to encourage more off-peak use.

constrained,

The other companies have to do it to be competitive. But at least in the U.S., the CDMA carriers do not have the capacity issues that the GSM and TDMA carriers are suffering with. The carriers get a lot less spectrum in the U.S. than in Europe, and they must use the same bandwidth for both voice and data, sonething that AT&T Wireless was struggling greatly with.

A big battle is now brewing in India, where the CDMA carriers are going to be able to provide 3G data services that the GSM carriers have no bandwidth for.

Eventually, everything will be CDMA, of one form or another, but that is a ways off.

Finland is an anomaly in wireless, for reasons that we are all well aware of.

They did come up with the Nokia 6310i though, for which I will be eternally grateful. Best phone I've ever had.

Ivor

Finland's cost structure is different because Finland's telecomm structure is primarily wireless - AS I'VE SAID BEFORE IN THIS THREAD, there is a much higher ratio of wireless uses to wireline users in Finland than anywhere else. Pay attention.

So which is it? Does CPP always lead to high prices or is Finland an exception? And if Finland is an exception, what could be the reason for it?

Osmo

The termination charges to mobile phones in Finland are still quite high, and CPP is almost certainly the reason. Look at a table of comparative termination charges to mobile phones throughout the world, and you can at least see relative costs (the U.S. carrier marks up the cost, but at least the relative costs can be seen). Finland is slightly less than France, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK, but not by a lot.

But the termination charges are just something that operators pay to each other. They are not paid by the callers. Their influence on the caller prices is not so simple. Sure they have some effect but as long as the calls spread evenly between networks the termination fees even up. That operators lose on outgoing inter-network calls they gain in incoming ones.

Those are charges international callers using that specific operator pay. They have nothing to do with Finnish domestic calls. The termination fees between mobile operators are 6.8-10 cents per minute (without VAT) with largest networks having smallest ones.

Osmo

It really amazes me. India is the cheapest place for cellular plans. For $4.00 a month they give you unlimited incoming minutes and $0.20 per minute for calling anywhere within India (with unlimited in-network minutes from few carriers).

A prepaid can go upto a month long with free incoming for $4.00 as well. I don't believe any other country beats this.

If I were you, I would buy a XDA and present it to my girlfriend configured with

FYI: there are several Hot-Spots in coffee shops, malls and work places where XDA will work great.

Sekhar.

Here in Malaysia I have to pay US$2.50 per month (the minimum recharge to keep my SIM from expiring) for unlimited incoming minutes, and then about US$0.12 per outgoing minute within Malaysia and to a few other countries (such as the USA).

miguel

Not to burst your bubble, but isn't it possible that the difference in prices are due to differences in value between the rupee and Malaysia's currency, and the US Dollar? I mean, isn't *everything* in those countries a lot cheaper than it is in the US?

Not everything - the phones themselves (as well as computers and other large electronic devices) are more expensive here. So is Newman's Own spaghetti sauce and beer in the supermarket.

I suppose it depends on how much these things are inputs into the mobile phone service business. Electronics, probably quite a lot. Beer, somewhat. Spaghetti sauce, not that much at all.

miguel

It is indeed calling party pays, I just wanted to play along.

Overall termination charges here are pretty low, but mobile is still about twice landline (so typical rates to call Malaysia from the USA are 3c/min landline, 6c/min mobile).

miguel