Which is not how it works in the rest of the world. Only U.S. consumers are so used to getting screwed that they would defend it as normal. Verizon loves double-billing so much for cell service that they want to do the same with the internet.
There are other countries that bill for incoming calls. I know of at least Singapore that does it.
Also, your phone provider does get charged for each incoming call. They just eat/redistribute that cost, since for normal phone user it's likely to be less than a penny per month. But try running a conference service and you're definitely going to get billed for incoming calls (apart from some weird force-subsidised areas where you can get paid to receive calls)
The difference is that in Singapore, you can get charged for incoming calls depending on your contract, but you _don't_ get charged for incoming SMS.
From a Singaporean perspective, that's the most bizarre part of mobile service in the US. I need to get an unlimited texting plan so that I don't get billed for people sending me texts? Whoa!
In India, when we were younger, we'd sometimes all call someone on their birthday. Before you know it, there'd be eight people at a time (with people dropping in and out to wish) on a conference call held at the birthday person's number. That person would pay nothing for this.
U.S. consumers think it's extremely unfair that a poor guy with a landline should subsidize the rich guy with the cell phone or the satellite phone. It might cost me $1 a minute to call my neighbor? No thanks!
