I think you do understand. It was I who did not make my point clear. I did not mean to suggest that Spark was on a growth path attracting more and more revenue from retail phone customers. I only meant to suggest that other streams of revenue were opening up. So it wasn't a given that as land line connections dried up, individual customer revenues would go down.
Yes I always had the impression there was a 'mutual forgiveness of costs' in both directions.
I just had a look at the Spark mobile plans on offer: $59.99 with unlimited talk, covering NZ and Oz is the cheapest 'pay monthly' plan. No mention of any extra charges when you connect to Vodafone or 2 degrees.
Alternatively the Spark copper landline is $55.20 per month. Local calls are 'free' (the good ol' kiwishare?), but toll calls are 24cpm (capped at $3) and calls to mobiles are 59cpm (capped at $5).
Personally, I have a Vodafone prepay mobile account. I got sent a text saying all the per minute charges are going up, so now might be a good time to transfer onto a monthly plan. I can't remember what the new charge rate per minute was. I just remember it was high enough that a medium length chat would empty my 'emergency account balance'. So I only use my mobile for texting now, I don't make voice calls.
I must admit I did not realise that Spark have dropped all their 'per minute' charging. So that changes the argument somewhat. The angle I was coming from was that 'we' landline dinosaurs have to pay a per minute charge to ring a cellphone. But you 'embracing the future' cellphoneites do not have to pay per minute to phone the landline, ringing the other way.
If you embrace the idea that telecommunication networks cost exactly the same whether it is in use or not, then because the landline callers to cellphones are 'paying per minute', but the cellphone callers to landlines are not, then effectively the landline customers are subsidising the cellphone customers (from a retail customer perspective anyway).Quote:
Packages for the user existed in the good old days (at least in the part of the world I am coming from) like today - this is just a way for the respective Telecom to maximise their revenue considering that running a telecommunication network costs exactly the same money whether it is in use or idle.
SNOOPY