Why play Snakes & Ladders
It will come as no surprise to learn that as cellular tariffs become increasingly complex, one has to look a little further than the crude headlines before one can accurately measure, compare and contrast the various options available.
Hardly a day passes without a fresh offer juggling new combinations of 'free' minutes, perhaps inclusive calls between company mobiles, call discounts and line rental charges. Choosing the best tariff to suit one's own needs, let alone a group of users, has become time consuming and impossibly complicated.
While many suppliers offer apparently 'free' minutes, free handsets and the like, the value of these promotions is more than offset for heavier users by subtly increased charges in other areas.
These are frequently roamed and international calls, using sophisticated techniques that are often hard to detect. They serve to swell charges in these, the most expensive call types, therefore having a dramatic impact on final charges.
Whilst varying levels of line rental, charges per minute and free calls are therefore difficult to evaluate, it is undoubtedly the case that many promote elements that are, in any combination, of questionable value. Adopting tariffs of this genre therefore represent you being drawn unwittingly into a game where the odds are heavily stacked against you by their creators, with the only outcome being that you will ultimately land on a 'snake'.