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< Esato Forum Index > Sony Ericsson / Sony > Symbian phones > Tarrif and Call viewing software? -request- Bookmark topic


I was wondering if a piece of software exists that displays a break down of your tarrif and how you are using it, to enable you to keep track of your monthly free minutes and stuff.

I checked my last bill yesterday and my call charges were only £7, but one of the calls actually cost me £6.80! so if I never made that one call I would have had a bill of 20p!

The call in question was made at 6:40pm (twenty minutes before my free off peak would have kicked in) and lasted for 8 minutes!

If I had a piece of software that sat on the main screen showing how many free minutes I had left, and displayed a warning if I'm still in peek time, also maybe showing how many free sms/mms/etc... I had left to send, I know my bills would be a lot better.

Some one tell me this already exists, please.
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Posted: 2003-03-30 12:46:00
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Damn...i'd pay good money for that software...would be very handy
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Posted: 2003-04-03 00:14:00
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nice idea, can it access that kind of info though? i mean i know on PAYG you can see ur remaining balance, but i've just moved onto pay monthly and dont you have to ring up for that kind of info?
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Posted: 2003-04-03 00:15:00
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The problem with that would be coping with the shear number of tariffs out there.
Not everyone has a standard tariff anymore, especially since all the networks are moving over to a "bolt on" style system, where you bulk buy text messages, picture messages, gprs etc etc seperately.
You can get this kind of info from your network by phoning customer services, both t-mobile and orange have it as part of the automatic "press 1 for bleh" system on 150. You can check your account usage online as well for most networks (depends on your billing provider for o2 and voda)
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Posted: 2003-04-03 01:01:00
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Surely it would be a case of writing some software where you can include details of your tariff - ie free minutes, cost of calls during which times and so on. Then this would access the call log details on the phone and give you the costs of each call maybe? Is this information available to developers through an api or something?
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Posted: 2003-04-03 17:13:00
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My thoughts would be that you just entered your free minutes and messages etc. and billing date so it knows when to could down from.
I might work best if the config file was produced on a PC then ported over to the p800. The software wouldn't really have to know your exact tariff, just what it consists of.
There are many standard tariffs which could be included as presets to select, but customisation would be a necessity.
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Posted: 2003-04-03 17:28:00
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one problem - cross-network charging, since cross-network calls cost different and the fone would have no way of knowing it was calling a different network, how would it know what to charge?
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Posted: 2003-04-03 19:07:00
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If the mobile industry wasn't such a fluid market then yea entering your own parameters would probably be viable.
But for the program to take in the shear scope of the tariffs in the UK alone, never mind anywhere else you would need to enter a lot of information.
And as above, how does the phone tell the difference between networks, what happens if the networks change the pricing for say an 0845 number, the original prices of which tend not to be the most publicised. The program, altho would be a good idea, would just be getting too big and cumbersum to become viable.
If it was coded for one set individual then yea it's a possibility, but mass market? I'm not so sure.
Besides the customer service lines and online billing systems are becoming more and more detailed and easy to access, which kind of defeats the purpose of any program!
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Posted: 2003-04-03 21:20:00
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Some very valid points made there. An option like adding network operator in the contacts would help slightly, but this concept is already getting very in-depth. It's almost as if the phone companies want you to have high bills

The idea would certainly work for the tariff I'm on now (Standard Orange 200) where you have 200 mins to all networks peak and off peak, plus a set number of SMS/MMS.

The screen data for my request would be.
An Icon stating Peak or Off Peak time - something as simple as a red dot to state peak and a green dot to state off peak.
Free minutes counter - situated next to the Peak Icon, this number would count down after each call made.
SMS/MMS counter - situated next to the Free minutes counter, this would also count down after each message sent.

There is always the exception of funny numbers like 0845 and 800, but these are numbers that I rarely if ever phone from my mobile. Plus, you can never guarantee the out put of your counter to be absolute, just really a nice reference.

It's a shame that this software couldn't be accessible to everybody, but I certainly feel that it will be of use to many people. Most people I know with a p800 have it on Orange talk 200 anyway.
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Posted: 2003-04-04 08:59:00
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U r taking this too far-they have charge info and everything.it is simple to look at the watch and remember the time when u go on low tarrif ..u need no sw 4that ..thats the beauty of mind. This message was posted from a WAP device
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Posted: 2003-04-04 10:39:00
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