IP: Cellular Telephone Companies Push for Changes in Billing System on Wireless Calls

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/02/biztech/articles/22phone.html

By SETH SCHIESEL

[]
debate is raging at the Federal Communications Commission about whether 
cellular telephone customers must continue to pay to receive calls as well 
as to make them.

Cellular companies, hoping to make wireless phones a viable, everyday 
alternative to the desk phone, have pressed for new rules that would allow 
them to bring wireless calls under the same "calling party pays" system 
used with the traditional telephone network.
But traditional local phone companies, which benefit from the current 
system, see far less need to change the rules. And some consumer groups 
argue that a change would mean higher rates for regular phone customers.