EU Minister Reding in favour of paying for incoming calls
Viviane Reding, the EU telecoms commissioner is changing tack on an almost monthly basis. The telecom killer now seems to suggest that she is in favour of the USA/China style model of RPP.
Imagine paying per minute for every call you receive, its total and utter madness, it works in the USA at 1c average but where would the benchmark be set in the EU, 10C?
This model is not viable and is a red herring from the minister in my opinion.
The minister is now attacking data and sms costs which is a very welcome move in my opinion but to attempt to fundamentally change the whole market in Europe is a mistake which the minister will come to regret.
Whilst all in favour of lowered pricing I am completely against RPP and I feel that this model will be bought in as a “double taxation” by the carriers should the minister not leave the market develop at a standard pace.
So, let me get this right, I would have to pay for every call whether or not I want to receive it? Would that drive down overall call costs?
Paying for receiving calls goes against all common sense – it amounts to price gouging for the carrier, next we’ll be charged for receiving SMS, wait a minute, they do that in the US as well.
What do I pay my line rental for? Just to keep the carrier in champagne? (ref: current Nationwide Building Society adverts in the UK…maybe we should have more businesses that have the customer at the centre)
the advantage in places like usa and china is that the termination charge is extremely low. is europe were to adopt this model it is true you would pay for incoming calls(or have bundled minutes deducted) but the advantage would likely be totally free(or very cheap) calls from landlines to all cell phones.
in the days when the per minute pricing was very similar i was a strong believer in the european model. but i have seen that prices have dropped much faster in places with RPP. we also have for example in every major city a smaller operator(such as metroPCS or criikit) that offer unlimited calls to/from all USA phones for a price comparable to the cheapest plans of the large operators. it is also practically unheard to be charged anything for cell phone calls on weekends and evenings. agian this goes along with the RPP model.
the fact is that europe has more competition that the USA and would likely end up with lower rates is similar billing systems were used.
how about offering both? a choice of a mobile phone number with the current method or a geographic number with RPP? it would be kind of like domestic MAXroam for the masses.
No no no! I hated that when I was in the USA, even though outgoing were cheaper. But I bet here outgoing would remain the same. Not another bloody Paddy tax, please!
Yep, hated this in the States too. It would be a backward step to take here which telecom companies would take complete advantage of to squeeze more out of users.
I’d like to be able to choose.
Calls from home, friends, I don’t mind RPP
Calls from strangers, spammers – they should pay double.
When will carriers give us *per number* flexibility!
if they go this way per minute airtime charged should be capped at the current per minute rates rates for outbound calls to landlines or in network. if i am not mistaken in countries where minute bundles are not popular(such as germany) calls to local(in country) landlines are very cheap if not free.
do away with the high termination charges and there is no longer any justification for charging extra to call a competing cell network as opposed to a landline.
actually though this would be by default RPP is limited to phone with new geographic numbering only. ideally there should be no way to tell a landline and mobile number apart and than the operator can not charge extra if the caller has no way to know what type of number and therefore the charge.
I hated this practice when I was living in China. I used to have a pre-paid mobile there, I charged up with 10 euros a month, just to get incoming calls from home. Now, depending on your carrier you are charged on a monthly basis regardless if you make or receive any calls for just being on their network, you are also charged for making them and receiving them.
The one thing I truly despised was receiving an international call and then getting disconnected when that call made my account run out of money. Think roaming charges but without leaving the comfort of your home. You also had to top up to receive future calls, that was the real kicker, especially when you received no alerts indicating your balance was either low or expired.
Thats bloody awful. Tom suggested an upside of that would be free landline calls. I dont want to subsidise other peoples landlines by paying everytime they call me. If someone wants to ring me they pay.
Anyone care to bet that O2 would manage to get this working before visual voicemail.
If someone wants to ring me they pay.
Obviously you value the call too, otherwise you wouldn’t continue the conversation with the caller. So is it fair to say you value the call a similar amount to the person who called you? So then, surely you should pay half the cost of the call each?