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About once a year I get a "I heard you were in an accident" robocall. But the main reason they're not a problem in the UK or Europe is that the caller pays for
by gwd 4y ago
About once a year I get a "I heard you were in an accident" robocall. But the main reason they're not a problem in the UK or Europe is that the caller pays for the mobile airtime; which is standardized at something like $0.20p/minute. Robocalling 1 million people would cost you £200k -- not generally cost-effective.
In the US, the callee pays for airtime; so the cost to the robocaller is fractions of a cent, and the 1-million-person robocall thing is a lot cheaper, and thus more cost-effective. Literally all the US has to do to make the problem go away is to charge people who call mobile phones $0.30 per minute. For legitimate callers, this will be nothing; generally included in their monthly plan; but it would cripple the entire robocalling industry.
- permo-w 4y ago>In the US, the callee pays for airtime that is literally shocking. so not only are robocallers irritating, they’re also costing you money? America needs to get its shit together
- jandrese 4y agoThis is rarely true 2022. Most phone plans have unlimited (unmetered) minutes. Back when people had to pay for their minutes there was a LOT more pressure to keep spammers off of cell numbers.
- UncleEntity 4y agoMy first spam call on a cellphone circa 1998 had the poor girl on the other end literally crying after I started going off about how much money that call was costing me. I didn’t mean to make her cry but it was costing me money after all…
- terinjokes 4y agoMobile numbers in the US are also assigned geographically alongside landlines. So it's not possible ahead of time to know if a number is mobile or not, making caller pays very unpredictable.