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I vote for a pre-paid per-MB pricing. And fair pricing, but yeah. I think it is comparable to a gas station: You drive more, you pay more. You drive less, you

I vote for a pre-paid per-MB pricing. And fair pricing, but yeah. I think it is comparable to a gas station: You drive more, you pay more. You drive less, you pay less. There are many reasons to feel raped by the oil companies, but that there is no gas flatrate is not one of them (I dont want to share a flatrate with people who use way more gas/data than me).

JumpCrisscross 14y ago
Why would you prefer pre-paid over being billed at the end of the month? The former is lending your carrier money at zero interest on a monthly basis.
- jamii 14y ago
  Because prepaid limits risk. You never end up at the end of the month with a bill for 100s or 1000s of dollars and at the first sign of trouble you can switch provider.
  - JumpCrisscross 14y ago
    You could just not pay the disputed bill until the matter has been resolved and switch providers in the interim.
    - wmf 14y ago
      With today's prices, you can rack up huge bills with legitimate usage; disputing such a bill is basically stealing. Pre-paid would prevent such problems.
- CookWithMe 14y ago
  Two reasons: In Germany the pre-paid carriers are actually (a little bit) cheaper. I assume they can be run more cost efficiently, not only because of the interest but also because they don't have to worry about people not being able to pay their bills etc. The other reason is, back in the early days of the internet I moved and switched from a modem to broadband. I also changed my contract with my internet provider, switching to a flatrate. They sent me an email, saying "order for flatrate received" etc. I didn't read the small print. 2 months later I received my first bill: No flatrate, huge bill. What happened? The day after I ordered, they changed their contracts. My order was for an old contract-type and was silently cancelled. Their fault, right? Nope, legally not, because the email said in the small print "Flatrate not yet booked, please wait for confirmation mail". Customer service figured it was better to screw me over than to keep me as a customer. (Propably a good choice, I think I could buy a flatrate for 3 or 4 years for that money today :) ). Anyway, wouldn't have happened with pre-paid.

JumpCrisscross 14y ago

Why would you prefer pre-paid over being billed at the end of the month? The former is lending your carrier money at zero interest on a monthly basis.

jamii 14y ago
Because prepaid limits risk. You never end up at the end of the month with a bill for 100s or 1000s of dollars and at the first sign of trouble you can switch provider.
- JumpCrisscross 14y ago
  You could just not pay the disputed bill until the matter has been resolved and switch providers in the interim.
  - wmf 14y ago
    With today's prices, you can rack up huge bills with legitimate usage; disputing such a bill is basically stealing. Pre-paid would prevent such problems.
CookWithMe 14y ago
Two reasons: In Germany the pre-paid carriers are actually (a little bit) cheaper. I assume they can be run more cost efficiently, not only because of the interest but also because they don't have to worry about people not being able to pay their bills etc. The other reason is, back in the early days of the internet I moved and switched from a modem to broadband. I also changed my contract with my internet provider, switching to a flatrate. They sent me an email, saying "order for flatrate received" etc. I didn't read the small print. 2 months later I received my first bill: No flatrate, huge bill. What happened? The day after I ordered, they changed their contracts. My order was for an old contract-type and was silently cancelled. Their fault, right? Nope, legally not, because the email said in the small print "Flatrate not yet booked, please wait for confirmation mail". Customer service figured it was better to screw me over than to keep me as a customer. (Propably a good choice, I think I could buy a flatrate for 3 or 4 years for that money today :) ). Anyway, wouldn't have happened with pre-paid.