- Flat fee
A flat fee, also referred to as a flat rate or a linear rate, refers to a pricing structure that charges a single fixed fee for a service, regardless of usage. Rarely, it may refer to a rate that does not vary with usage or time of use. Another term used is "flate", a hybrid of "flat" and "rate".
Telephony
American
Telecommunication s companies commonly offer a flat rate to residential customers for localtelephone call s. However, a regular rate or "Message Rate" is advantageous for those who only make a few short calls per month. Flat rates were rare outside the USA and Canada until about 2005, but have since become widespread in Europe for both local and long distance calls and are now also available formobile phone services, both for traditional GSM/UMTS voice calls and forMobile VoIP .Most
VoIP services are effectively flat-rate telephony services, since only the broadband internet fees must be paid for PC-to-PC calls, and the calls themselves are free. Some PC-to-telephone services, such as SkypeOut offer flat rates for national calls to landlines.* See also
Automatic Message Accounting Television
Premium television or Pay TV usually charges a flat monthly fee for a channel or a bundle or "tier" of channels, but someCable television companies also offerPay per view pricing.Internet
For
Internet service provider s, flat rate is access to the Internet at all hours and days of the year (linear rate) and for allcustomer s of the telco operator (universal) at a fixed and cheaptariff .Flat rate is common in
broadband access to the Internet in the USA and most other countries.A charge tariff is a class of linear rate, different from the flat rate, where the user is charged by the
upload s anddownload s (data transfer s). TheGPRS / dataUMTS access to the Internet in some countries ofEurope has no flat rate pricing, following the traditional "metered mentality". Because of this, users prefer using fixed lines (with narrow or broadband access) to connect to the Internet.A wavy rate is not a linear rate, because the Internet surfer pays the monthly fixed price to use the connection only during a certain range of hours of the day (i.e. only in the morning or, more typically, only at night).
Electricity
A flat rate for
electricity is different from that for other services. Anelectric utility that charges a flat rate for electricity does not charge different rates based upon the demand that the customer places on the system. A customer pays the same amount whether they use the electricity in bursts during mid-day, when demand and the utility's costs are highest, or if they spread it out over the entire day. However, if the customer uses a different amount of electricity, they are charged a higher or lower amount. Residential customers and small businesses are usually charged a flat rate, though not the same rate perkilowatt-hour . A special type ofelectricity meter , a time of use meter, is required to charge a non-flat rate. Time of use meters can lower a customer's electricity bill, if they use electricity mostly during off-peak hours. Some utilities will allow a customer to change to a time of use meter, but they charge for the cost of the meter and installation.Transport
In most parts of the world regular users of
public transport , especiallycommuter s, make use of weekly, monthly or yearly "season ticket s" that allow unlimited travel for a fixed fee. In some countries year passes are available for the entire national railway network (e.g. the Bahncard100 in Germany for about €3000 and the "Oesterreich Card" offered by theAustrian Federal Railways ). Some, such as theEurail Pass, are intended for foreigners, in order to encourage tourism.Road users are normally charged a combination of fixed and variable fees, in the form of vehicle duty and
fuel duty . Motorway tolls in some countries (Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia) are paid by purchasing weekly, monthly or annual stickers attached to the windscreen.ee also
*
Flat fee MLS
*Flat tax
*Rural Internet
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