Set-up fee for calls in Scandinavia?
 

Does anyone know why a few countries (I think the Scandinavian ones) have a set-up fee attached to the cost of calls? Is there a technical reason why or is it there just to grab money from users? If the reason is technical, then was there some kind of abuse done in the past that made the fee come into practice?

This problem (if we can call it 'problem') is not only for scandinavian tariffs but generally. In Italy too there's a lot of tariffs with a set-up fee, but you can choose your best tariff (with or without set-up fee) :-)

Set up fee is just one way of debeting the user. Other ways are; debeting intervals larger than 1 sec, monthly fee, per minute fare, minumum monthly consumption. The more factors the more complicated for the customers.

What counts in the end is how much you actually are paying for your calls, whatever the methods are.

A wellknown strategy is to create a tariff that uses different methods of charging than the competitors do. Then it becomes almost impossible to make comparisons.

Borjeg, are set-up fees in Scandinavian countries still payed for non-unswered calls too?

In Sweden: No
In Denmark: Some
In Norway: Some
In Finland: No
In Iceland: No