Traditionally, it has never been really cheaper to get a better long distance calling rate on a cellular phone than on a landline. Cellular carriers often charge higher rates because they can, or because they have to pay more for the services through their providers.

Obviously, there are other alternatives, such as VoIP, and bulk long distance purchases, but if you are using a cellular phone, like Apple's iPhone, for example, you can take advantage of other services, such as email, text messaging, or even MSN Messenger to communicate over long distances.

If for instance, you were going to buy an iPhone in the UK, you could pay for long distance charges through your O2 telephone account, or you could use your existing UK iPhone plan, and send unlimited messages or emails to your friends, family, or business partners through your iPhone. And the amount of money you could save by not using long distance to communicate information, could be used to towards the price of a UK iPhone!

Long distance charges can't always be avoided, but the new generations of cellular phone users (iPhone, Blackberry, smartphone) are realizing that you don't always need to hear the person's voice to be able to talk to them.