[srikrishnan]

"companies sit around trying to figure out what customer charges they can get away with" That is so true! I used to work for a US telco and I've read all the stories about the "mystery charges".

Also, I must say that telcos, and even banks, in India are to an extent like this. Had one bank put a 1.5$ on my credit card statement for an analysis that they did on my spend the previous month - which indicated that 100% of my card spend was towards airfare. I used the card only once, EVER, and I did not ask for that analysis! I ended up spending 3$ (counting just travel cost) fighting the 1.5$ charge, but I absolutely wasn't going to let them have it!

Imagine telcos making an extra 1$ on some random charge on some 10 million customers. Even that is a lot of money!