Mr Matt
join:2008-01-29
Eustis, FL
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1 edit | If you think the 15-Second Voice Mail Cash Cow is abusive.  If you think the 15 Second Voice Mail Cash Cow is abusive think again. When I was working for a Bell Operating Company in the early 1980's, the company sold Wide Area Telecommunications Lines (WATS).
One of the way we hawked our wares was to point out to subscribers that WATS lines were billed in Six Second Increments. Bell Labs worked out a formula that proved that billing in Six Second increments saved the customer 20% on their Toll Charges per month versus One Minute Billing.
I used the second hand method to prove my point. With Six Second Billing in the worse case if the call lasted One Second into the next increment the subscriber would be billed for only Six Seconds of usage thereby overpaying for Five Seconds of usage. On the other hand if the call lasted One Second into the next increment with One Minute Billing the subscriber would be charged for a full minute of usage thereby overpaying for 59 Seconds of usage. I do not see the wireless or land line companies adopting six second billing. Another way to rip off the subscriber.
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Edit 8/4/09 8:00 AM
I failed to mention that the reason consumers will save on the average of 20% on their bill with 6 Second Billing is rounding error. With 1 Minute Billing customers would be over charged for 59 Seconds of usage if they went 1 Second into the next Minute. On the other hand with 6 Second Billing the most a customer would be overcharged was for 5 Seconds of usage. I do not recall of any carrier offering 1 Second Billing. |
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bt
join:2009-02-26
canada
kudos:1 | Never heard of per-second billing? It's become pretty common for wireless airtime and wired or wireless long distance billing. Not universal of course, but not exactly rare either. |
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JDLSU
join:2007-10-07
Denham Springs, LA | reply to Mr Matt
I think i remember old Alltel ads that advertised them billing by the exact second, no interval at all. The ad had clocks counting time above the callers heads and when one hung up the clock kept running but when the Alltel customer hung up the clock stopped on that second. Of course that was years ago and there is no Alltel anymore... |
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 kyler13Is your fiber grounded?
join:2006-12-12
Arnold, MD | reply to Mr Matt
In fairness to landline, most everything these days is unlimited, long distance included. But even if you go with metered long distance, there are a number of choices among third party long distance providers that bill by the 6-second interval and they've been doing this for years. Before I switched to VoIP, I had some New England outfit that did this. Much more economical, but I also found some companies would scam you by charging you a higher per minute rate for 0.1 minute billing versus whole minute billing within their own selection of plans. |
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| reply to JDLSU
said by JDLSU:I think i remember old Alltel ads that advertised them billing by the exact second, no interval at all. The ad had clocks counting time above the callers heads and when one hung up the clock kept running but when the Alltel customer hung up the clock stopped on that second. Of course that was years ago and there is no Alltel anymore... I remember those! Lol as soon as I read this article that exactly commercial played in my head. |
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| reply to JDLSU
There IS alltel. Who do you think they are? Many areas are still under Alltel's mgt until VZW takes them all under. And all those areas that Alltel had to spin off---those are ALL still Alltel.
Also I can still sign up for Alltel service. If there wasn't any Alltel I wouldn't be able to sign up. |
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