Re: On the spam problem...

At 15.09 -0800 04-02-05, Einar Stefferud wrote:
>Hello Jacob -- Telephone systems ran a micropayment systems
>for decades, Charging for calls by the minute.  the umbers I
>have seen are that the cost of the payment systems (aka Billing
>Dept) was in he order of 70% of the cost of phone service.
>
>This is why most have gone to flat fees for phone service,
>because it is competitive.  When the cost per unit becomes
>small enough (like US $0.10 cents) even the hone companies
>cannot afford to run the micropayment system any more.
>
>The cost of the payment system will dwarf the cost of EMAIL.
>
>I understand the the list wants to openly consider any and all
>ideas, but lets not fail to discuss them in the light of reality.
>
>It is fine by me to include the idea, but not under false
>assumptions of cost. 
>
>So, my comments are as legitimate as yours;-)...

But this was a long time ago. Computers and networks have
become much much less expensive in the last ten years. I do
not understand why they could not design a real low-cost
micopayment system.

But since they have not succeeded in doing this, I guess
you are right, there must be some hitch causing the cost to
be high even with todays equipment.

In Sweden, phone companies nowadays charge per call and
provide a detailed itinerary on the bill, usually once
every third month, of every single call, even local calls.
The typical price of a phone call between any two
fixed-line (non-cellular) phones in Sweden is around 3
cents in Sweden. The Swedish phone companies do not seem to
have any problem handling such small items in their bills!
-- 
Jacob Palme <[email protected]> (Stockholm University and KTH)
for more info see URL: http://www.dsv.su.se/jpalme/