Good news on wrong numbers
Posted by Ben on Sun, 10/03/2004 - 7:39pm.
From what I remember the European cell phone model and the American cell phone model work on two very distinctively different pay schemes. On the European system, only outgoing calls are charged to the owner; which makes cell phones there more similar to American land-lines. Opppositely American cell phone plans charge for all airtime used. Since there is some FCC regulation regarding fair compensation for the minutes used, cell phone companies would be liable for the cost of the call - dependant on each individual cell plan, which ultimately makes a quagmire of administrative work for them. The end result is that non-compensated unsolicited cell phone calls are illegal. Getting a call from a telemarketer has been rare for me - only once in the past 5 years with the same cell number. Whereas when I had a landline, I recieved daily marketing. As a result, I haven't had a land line in two years. It should be noted that I do recieve unsolicited phone calls for marketing from companies I do indeed have a relationship with (student loans, credit cards, cable, and of course the phone company), but those are covered by some clause about current services having implicity consent.

I would think text messaging would be restricted similarly, but I think it is really too dumb and time-wasting for me, so I refuse to use the service.

-B
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