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Posted by T on June 6, 2008, 5:00 pm
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> > Bill Horne wrote:
> > > So long as Ma Bell doesn't put ads on their ring tones and busy
> > > signal.
>
> > Do you not think the telcos have already thought of this profit
> > model? Thats a scary thought.
>
> On a similar note, now, more annoying than paying a 1 minute
> charge to hear the beginning of a voice mail announcement when you
> don't want to: The "Please enjoy the music while we contact the
> person you called". Complete crap, it immediately connects the call
> and starts to charge you whether or not you will actually speak to the
> person. This is nothing more than a sham in many ways, they probably
> charge the subscriber for this "custom music" feature, they collect
> revenue for terminating the call if it's intralata (?), also the
> originating telco receives money for the call. Really, when I call
> someone I want to speak to them. Very rarely leave a voicemail and if
> I know they're not available and it's a mobile phone # then a text
> message is much better than a voice message in most cases.
>
> The US needs to get with the program and stop using 1 minute
> billing increments. Most Euro based pre-paid etc.. phone service I
> have used bills in per second increments or [increments] much smaller
> [than a minute, such as] 5 or 10 second blocks of time so you don't
> get ripped off for that 2 second call to someone's voicemail. In
> fact, in Brazil the first 3-4 seconds of the call is non-chargeable if
> you hang right up.
>
>
The issue of time increments for billing isn't a technical issue but a
policy issue instead.
It comes down to regulation. The wireless carriers operate under very
little regulation. They only report to the FCC and that entity is more
concerned with selling bandwidth than actually regulating anything.
It might be time to stop the political games at the FCC and empanel a
committee that won't be answerable to any hack poitician or lobbyist.
Then pass acts to give the FCC serious regulatory enforcement powers.
That would put every carrier on the same page, fix the time increments
hopefully in the seconds vs. minutes direction, and quite possibly give
us open standard for cellular communications.
| ![[telecom] Re: To Thwart TiVo, a Nod to Television's Golden Age](/images/header.jpg)
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