(keitai-l) Re: Phone Handset Price

My experiences: back in Johannesburg, I brought my cellphone (Nokia 1110)
from one cellular outlet, Get a number from them seperately, starting pay
bill by month when I made call (with subscription fee too). That means I
made as fewer calls as possible when I on the road.

Today, I am in Taiwan, I still use that Nokia 1110, but get a local number
from FarEasTone incorporated with AT&T. I pay +/- USD2.9 a month plus bill I
made out calls.

That's the current situation.


Charles@qualfone.com.tw

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Bryan Lester" <pbl1@livedoor.com>
To: <keitai-l@appelsiini.net>
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 7:56 AM
Subject: (keitai-l) Re: Phone Handset Price



    Here's my experience with the price differential.
In the US you get a phone with less features that costs more initially
but usage is lower because the big discounts are on your
monthly bill where you get a lot of free time.

    In Japan, the cheap phones are always put out by the competitors
which have less market share.  They get your money anyway through
2 methods.

1:  the quality of the connection is not as good is as many places
with the 1 yen phone's network.  (They save money by not providing
the best service possible)

2:  The monthly bill has less free time (often none) and thus usually runs
higher
than the US equivalent unless you use your phone a whole lot.

    So after a few months the company has gotten the money to pay
for your 1 yen phone through higher monthly rates disguised in varied
discount programs.

    They used to require you to own the phone for at least 6 months
all the time.  That is the way they used to recap the costs.  No longer.

    Now instead they give you a monthly discount proportional to
the time that you say you will own the phone (which is better for us
developers
who need phones without connections).  In this way the cheaper the monthly
bill you have the more money they make off you because you have
to own it longer or pay a high severance fee.

    In conclusion you don't need to worry about your soul.  Just
be careful which pricing plan you choose and make sure it
fits your desires.

    I have heard rumors of the leader (DoCoMo's) phones on sale
for cheap of 1 yen but haven't seen it with my eyes yet.

Mike Derouin wrote:

> Walking around Akihabara and seeing all the phones at 1 Yen - how much
> of my soul am I losing to get these prices?

--
-Paul Lester
pbl1@cornell.edu
http://members.tripod.com/~pbl1/

"Don't Forget to Try in Mind"
      "May the Force be with you"
              "Ketchup is Good"
-"Ketchup, natto and kimchee, that`s what Wogis are made of"



This mail was sent to address services@qualfone.com.tw
Need archives? How to unsubscribe? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/