Without getting in a philosophical argument, charging by time on a
packet-switched cellular network makes little sense for several reasons:
* Cellular networks are inherently unstable (often drop and reconnect)
* Packet-switched network means the phone is always on
So, do you charge a user for just leaving the phone "on" all the time? Also,
if you break down time charges to 1 minute intervals, and the phone
disconnects and reconnects several times a minute, does the user get recharged
for every connect (as has happened on some WAP networks now)?
More realistically, I can image from a business perspective that voice calls
become free (commoditized) in order to drive users to use value-added data
services. Also it's possible to imagine charges for data-related services,
regardless of the quantity/time of data used.
r e n
Zimran Ahmed wrote:
> >What makes you think this? I was thinking the same thing. To browse the
> >web on a computer (desktop, laptop or handheld) using a mobile, it seems
> >to be much cheaper to pay by the minute than by the packet, although that
> >of course could change if want to look at one page for a long time etc. I
> >guess the packet pricing was made for i-mode as we know it now so perhaps
>
> pricing has interesting consequences for experience. Any sort of
> *metered* payment, either per packet or per minute, reduces usage
> substantially
> (http://www.research.att.com/~amo/doc/history.communications0.abst).
> i-mode has seen some good usage, but it is likely that had DoCoMo adopted
> flat-fee pricing, usage and uptake would have been even faster (I'm not
> advocating that they should have done this, just making an observation).
> AOL experienced a similar thing when they switched from per-minute to
> flat fee. AOL usage had grown very quickly, but it *really* mushroomed
> when they made the switch.
>
> As for is charging by minute cheaper than charging by packet -- it
> depends on the price per minute vs. the price per packet. Here in the US,
> where most carrier charge by minute, users feel time pressured when using
> their mobile devices. This is *particularly* true when entering text
> (say, a message to someone else) than when browsing for content.
>
> So, when entering text, charging by packet may work out cheaper, but when
> browsing content, charing by minute may be cheaper.
>
> zimran
>
> zimran@creativegood.com
> 212.736.2075
>
> Check out our new wireless whitepaper! Download it for free at:
> http://www.creativegood.com/wireless
>
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Received on Sun Jan 21 12:29:16 2001