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Wait, do you mean both the caller and the answerer pay for the call? Really, aren't you confusing something?

• sethg 15y ago
  Yes, really. American cell-phone plans generally give you a fixed number of calling minutes (plus various other bonuses, such as free calling on nights and weekends), and once you go over the quota, you pay for receiving calls. I just checked out the cheapest individual plan for Verizon in my area, and they charge 45¢ per minute after your allowance is up. I assume they set things up this way because cellphone numbers share the same number space in North America as landline numbers, so if it costs more to maintain a cellphone network, the operator cannot recover those extra costs entirely from people calling into it.