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Growing up in Australia, I was jealous of local, outgoing landline calls being free in North America. Having said that, and living here now, I wonder how many
by narcissus 14y ago
Growing up in Australia, I was jealous of local, outgoing landline calls being free in North America.
Having said that, and living here now, I wonder how many of these ridiculous scam, spam and random calls I wouldn't get if the callers had at least a few cents per call tacked on to the price?
I mean, I have no doubt that they probably pay some provider for some access to the network, but if calls had essentially 'a few cents' at the bare minimum... I know normal people would have to pay the same thing, but still.
And who knows... having not been in Australia for so long, things may be just as awful there now too, but I do know that I never hear my mother complaining about all the calls.
- thomc 14y agoSame here, from the UK and always wished the outgoing local calls were free like the US. However, many of the robocalls and scam calls coming into my line these days appear to come from overseas. I don't know how they can afford to do that but I've seen reports that some are using spare capacity in legitimate overseas call centres as a side-business. Otherwise you have to assume they make enough from their scam to be worth it, or purchase the capacity on credit and do a runner before paying the bill, or using stolen credit cards. Actually there are many ways now that I think about it! Point being that charging for outgoing calls won't stop the robocalls but will cost legitimate users.
- rmc 14y agoOften they would hack people's VoIP or telephone exchange and just route calls through that.