UK Numbers and cell phones..

[ExSlyder]

Well, even though I know no-one in the UK with a cell phone (I actually know NO ONE in the UK right now). But my question is, now that BV has numbers available in the UK, does anyone know if the cellular numbers in the UK are going to become "included" with the BV packages? Or are the cell numbers in the UK not even local for residents in the UK? Like I said, since I don't know anyone in the UK, not sure how it works.

Thanks

Joe

[PhoneBoy]

In the US, Canada, China, and maybe a few other countries, it costs the same amount of money to call a landline as it does a mobile phone. Of course, in the US and Canada, you also pay for incoming calls (not sure about China). You can easily end up in a situation where both the caller and the callee are paying for the call (e.g. two mobiles on different carriers calling each other). However, with generous minute buckets, night/weekend minutes, it generally evens out.

In most other countries, including the UK, it costs more to call a mobile phone than it does to call a landline--significantly more. These countries implement a calling party pays system. This means the person making the call foots the entire cost of making the call. The mobile carriers use this mechanism to recover the costs of building out their network.

Unless the mobile phone carriers decide to lower their termination costs (unlikely), it is unlikely that you will see mobile phones included in "unlimited" calling plans.

[djkeit]

I would say it's impossible that will ever happen.

Terminations to UK cell numbers are priced above 0.15 (possibly above 0.20) US$

If you need, in the future, to call UK cellphones, Dialpad has a rate of 15c/min (+ a $3 monthly fee)

Of course, that is because - as Phoneboy said - the caller is supposed to pay for the cost of reaching a mobile users. (In turn, cellphone users don't pay anything when they receive a call... I actually i get paid 4c/min for receiving calls on my mobile)

[djkeit]

Originally Posted by PhoneBoy

In the US, Canada, China, and maybe a few other countries, it costs the same amount of money to call a landline as it does a mobile phone. Of course, in the US and Canada, you also pay for incoming calls (not sure about China).

In China, it depends what service you are using.

local carriers whose networks are based on the Dect-GAP standard assign local number and charge a monthly connection fee rather than per min. rates (for incoming calls)

Regular mobiles assign special number ranges (13x, etc.)
The way calls are billed to the caller is kinda difficult to explain and will hijack the thread.
I think it's enough to say some networks (China Telecom) charge very little (1-3c), some others (Unicom) don't charge you anything.

[PhoneBoy]

4c a minute to receive a call. Explains why it costs so bloody much to call a mobile.

[djkeit]

Originally Posted by PhoneBoy

4c a minute to receive a call. Explains why it costs so bloody much to call a mobile.

That also explains why people in US and Canada try to keep their cellphones switched off while in Europe we are so keen to answer cellphone calls anytime anywhere!

After all 4c/min it's $2.4 a hour...

[PhoneBoy]

It's the astronomically high roaming charges that make us want to keep our phones switched off. At $1 USD a minute (or more) for an incoming call, you'd want to keep your phone switched off too.