[Asterisk-Users] It's true - Nikotel charge for not-completed calls

[BK [address only for mailing lists]]

On Thursday, July 10, 2003, at 02:59 AM, Jon Pounder wrote:

> Guys, unless their site states something to the contrary you don't have 
> a hope in hell with this.
>
> you are paying them for a voip circuit, which you are using to attempt 
> a call.
>
> you have taken up several seconds of voip bandwidth which they are 
> charging you for, the same way you would pay if there is 6 seconds of 
> silence during your phone conversation. (This takes roughly the same 
> amount of transfer as an unsuccessful call setup.)
>
> By the same reasoning, if you have some strange audio in your 
> conversation which does not compress well, they don't charge you extra 
> since it costs more to deliver your call than you are paying. The price 
> is based on averages.
>
> Do you complain at an all you can eat buffet if you get full after a 
> small plateful ? Same concept.

First of all, nobody complained.

As far as your argument is concerned, it can be dismissed very easily 
because of

a) common sense; and
b) about 120 years of telephony history during which it has been 
customary to charge for payload not for effort

VoIP is not going to change this well established business practise

If Nikotel gets enough requests, they are likely to rectify their 
billing, if not, sooner or later some competitor is trying to get a 
competitive edge by making it their sales pitch that they don't charge 
for unconnected time. Just like by-six-second billing or even 
by-the-second billing has eventually won over by-30-seconds or 
by-the-minute billing. It is that simple. Your reasoning notwithstanding.

rgds
bk