In message , at 14:45:40 on Fri, 19
Jul 2019, MissRiaElaine remarked:
Networks have tried hard over the years to introduce their
equivalent of* "standing charges" to fight back a little bit. One
I'll be writing about* later (in more detail) in another subthread,
is the O2 requirement that* PAYG phones wanting to use the tube
Wifi are topped up at least once a* month.

A standing charge equals a contract. Making someone top up monthly
is effectively forcing them onto one in all but name.
It's a slight discount, because the typical top-up would be £10 and
the typical contract £30. And because you can stop any time you like
(apart from some more recent hybrid plans that include a
partly-subsidised phone) it's not in any sense a "contract".

Semantics. In all but name it is. If you have to pay a certain amount
of money each month regardless of how much you use it, then to me it's
a contract.

It's vastly more than semantics. The whole point of the "contract"
system for mobile phones (and many other infrastructure accounts) is
locking someone in for a minimum period. The impossibility of resigning
early is the only thing about the contract that ever really maters.

--
Roland Perry