Think of it as 1/10th of a minute billing. In times past, only full-minute billing was available from the telephone companies. Then came deregulation and some competitors said let's use incremental 1/10th of a minute (6 second) billing instead of the old faithful full minute billing. It will give us a competitive edge. They were right. All but the biggest, AT&T, MCI and Sprint, started to offer this more accurate type of counting how long you were on a call in order to calculate how much to charge you. Today, almost all carriers offer some type of six-second timing but unfortunately, not to all of their customers. Typically, residential and low-billing accounts are not offered this preferential type of billing.

It's more accurate

To better understand the concept, let's say you were shopping for some cheese at the deli. Cheddar was selling for $3.00 per pound. You ordered one and a half pounds. Do you want to pay $4.50 or do you want to pay $6.00 for the cheese? Obviously we all want the $4.50 because that what it should be. But, if your deli only charged in one-pound increments, you would have been charged $6.00 for the purchase.

It's less expensive

Telephone call timing is really the same thing. When you make a one and a half-minute call, you will either be charged for 1.5 minutes of calling or 2 minutes of calling. With full minute billing, all calls get rounded up to the next full minute increment or, in this example, 2 minutes. This additional billing adds up and significantly impacts your effective cost per minute. For example assume your rate is 10 cents per minute. One and a half minutes times 10 cents equals .15 cents. Whereas the full minute cost ends up being .20 cents–25% higher for the same call. Granted the difference will lessen as the length of the call goes up but for every long call there are probably three short ones.

Short calls add up!

Just think about how many times you've called somebody only to reach an answering machine or voice mail system. That leads me to the next point, minimum call duration. The Simplicity™ plan has a call minimum of 18 seconds, or 3/10th of a minute. Most full-minute billing services have a one-minute minimum. Most six-second carriers, unlike Simplicity, have a 30-second minimum–advantage Simplicity.

One more calculation to make the point that Simplicity's billing increments are really consumer friendly: assume an equal interstate rate of 4.5 cents and you make a call to an answering machine. You leave a short message and the total length of the call is 10 seconds. The cost for the Simplicity service is $0.01 for the call (3 / 10 X .045= .01 rounded down). For the same call, a full minute carrier will charge you $0.05, which is 500% as much. And to complete the comparison, a six second billing - thirty second minimum carrier will charge you $0.02, which is 200% as much. This just goes to prove that all six second carriers are not equal.

Start saving now

You now know why it is better to have six second call timing with an 18-second call minimum. Combine this timing savings with the lowest rates per minute offered, topped off with no monthly fees and you have a real winning combination. What are you waiting for? Sign up on-line now.