If I am one one cell phone and call another cell phone, there are two "airtimes" so of course both pay. It is only an artifact of marketing that some cell companies make that call free or cheaper than landline calls. Text messaging pricing is indeed insane in both the USA and Europe. Though I get free unlimited data and free unlimited text and 500 mins airtime for $30/month, which seems to beat just about all the plans out there.

You can get free incoming minutes (free to both caller and recipient) from several cell companies here, but of course it is not "free" as the plans are not as good in other departments, but cheaper than many overseas plans.

But I still believe the right approach is to make it "a phone is a phone" to the caller. The caller should not have to pay a different amount to call me because I happen to be on my cell at one moment and my landline the next. Especially not the ridiculous 20 cent/minute charges so many european mobile carriers charge. Only when "a phone is a phone" do you get the ability to do interesting innovations without having to worry about accounting. Today, if you want to build phone apps, you can make them free or flat rate -- except calling cell phones in Europe and similar places. In N.A. you can just make the apps free or flat rate when domestic.