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The Telecom Digest for June 8, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 123 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: Cellco cheating with Prepaid? (Joseph Singer)
Re: Cellco cheating with Prepaid? (danny burstein)

====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

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Date: Thu, 6 Jun 2013 07:35:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Cellco cheating with Prepaid? 
Message-ID: <1370529355.30421.YahooMailClassic@web121905.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>

Sun, 2 Jun 2013 08:33:12 -0700 (PDT)Mark Smith wrote:

 > I think Tracfone does whole minute increments, so if you go a
 > second over it costs a minute.

 As far as I know all US mobile operators use "send-to-end" billing
 meaning that you have the possibility to be charged any time you
 press the "send" or talk button.  You are only charged if the end
 calling party's line answers.  If it does answer you are charged for
 the entire length of the call process i.e. you will be charged time
 from call setup, called line ringing, actual time the conversation is
 going as well as the time it takes to take down your call.  

 This is in contrast to the way some operators work.  In Canada (on
 Fido) for postpaid service you are charged exact billing and only are
 charged for actual off-hook time.  This is also the norm for many
 foreign GSM operators.  I'm guessing that send-to-end billing is a
 remnant of analog mobile calling since (I'm guessing) there was no
 "supervision" available for analog systems.  

 The domestic operators saw no reason to change the system since it
 helped them make more revenue even though with today's sophisticated
 systems exact billing is easily possible.  It's not so important for
 people who have unlimited talk on their mobile plans, but can mean
 higher charges for anyone who is still paying for their voice calls
 by the minute.




Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2013 18:32:55 +0000 (UTC)
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Cellco cheating with Prepaid? 
Message-ID: <kot90m$56o$1@reader1.panix.com>

In <1370529355.30421.YahooMailClassic@web121905.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com> writes:

> This is in contrast to the way some operators work.  In Canada (on
> Fido) for postpaid service you are charged exact billing and only are
> charged for actual off-hook time.  This is also the norm for many
> foreign GSM operators.  I'm guessing that send-to-end billing is a
> remnant of analog mobile calling since (I'm guessing) there was no
> "supervision" available for analog systems.  

> The domestic operators saw no reason to change the system since it
> helped them make more revenue even though with today's sophisticated
> systems exact billing is easily possible. i

Omnipoint used to charge from answer to "end". They switched
to "send to end" (rounded up to the minute [a]) very roughly
five years ago. (Which is probably ten by now...).

[a] With the notable exception of Nextel, which used to 
round up to the tenth of a minute (six seconds), all major
US carriers have always done full minute segments. Then again,
so did AT&T in the wired phone days. 

--- 
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
                    dannyb@panix.com 
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

***** Moderator's Note *****

ISTR that the one-minute billing increments were a result of the
mechanical time-recording and reporting systems of the
manual-cord-board days.

Bill Horne
Moderator






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