Lesson plan

Flagfall

Flagfall, or flag fall, is a common Australian expression for a fixed start fee, especially in the taxi, haulage, railway, and toll road industries. For example, Sydney's WestConnex motorways charge such a fee. From the Australian mobile phone industry, the expression has recently begun to spread to other English-language countries as business jargon for an initial fixed fee for establishing each phone call. The logic behind it is believed to be a method used by Australian mobile phone companies to recover a component of the carriage charges that they incur in completing a call to a subscriber. Called termination rates, they are based on the price terms and conditions for the mobile terminating access service (MTAS). The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is reviewing such arrangements. The expression is also beginning to find its way into other businesses as a synonym to "start fee". The taxi expression is also being used in Hong Kong, New Zealand, and some other countries, but it has not been used there as a general synonym for a start fee.

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Article summary

Flagfall, or flag fall, is a common Australian expression for a fixed start fee, especially in the taxi, haulage, railway, and toll road industries. For example, Sydney's WestConnex motorways charge such a fee. From the Australian mobile phone industry, the expression has recently begun to spread to other English-language countries as business jargon for an initial fixed fee for establishing each phone call. The logic behind it is believed to be a method used by Australian mobile phone companies to recover a component of the carriage charges that they incur in completing a call to a subscriber. Called termination rates, they are based on the price terms and conditions for the mobile terminating access service (MTAS). The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is reviewing such arrangements. The expression is also beginning to find its way into other businesses as a synonym to "start fee". The taxi expression is also being used in Hong Kong, New Zealand, and some other countries, but it has not been used there as a general synonym for a start fee.

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Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.