Canada and U.S. have the most expsensive cellphone plans

[Slapshot136]

Mobile users in the US and Canada tend to pay more for a complete cell phone package than anyone else in the world, according to a new report from the New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative (OTI). The foundation examined the different types of mobile packages in various countries in order to determine the minimum cost for voice minutes, texting, and data, and found that—surprise!—countries with more competition and more regulation tended to have the best pricing.

OTI examined prepaid, unlimited, and postpaid plans in 11 countries in order to determine the best rates in each. Overall, the foundation said that mobile users in the US need to pay at least $59.99 for a complete cell phone package that includes voice, text, and data (which we'll break down in a minute). Comparatively, users in Canada must pay US$67.50—making Canada the only country to top the US.

India and Hong Kong came in with the cheapest complete plans, at $12.90 and $13.50 respectively.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/10/us-canada-lead-the-world-in-expensive-cell-packages.ars

 

[esb]

Wages are also much different.

 

[Darthfett]

Surprise, surprise, I knew it.

This is the one reason I refuse to upgrade my phone/plan. I'm currently paying < $1.00/mo for voice, pay per text, and no data. I'd be happy to get a brand new android if it didn't require me to pay $15 a month just for the 'data plan', plus a huge premium for voice/text.

 

[ReVolver]

An unlimited plan with text, talk, and Internet on a 3g network in Mexico is $197.00 which is ~15$ USD


An unlimited iPhone4 plan for 24 months is $617.00 a month which is ~50$ USD a month.

 

[King TonGoll]

in panama, it doesn't cost you to take calls, only to call people.

 

[ElderKingpin]

now we know why everyone in hong kong has a cell phone.

 

[Slapshot136]

Wages are also much different.

just wondering, where do you get this information from? I would like to see the average wage to price ratio to see if that is actually the cause or not

 

[Ninja_sheep]

I sort of understand why they don't take Switzerland into account.

But we can't let you claim the title for most expensive cellphone plans

Won't get an unlimited everything plan for less then 110$ (I converted currency) here.

Yes, it sucks :/

 

[sqrage]

Wages are also much different.

Data plans were somewhat unpredictable—Japan somehow rang up $9.40 per megabyte in postpaid plans, with Hong Kong coming in second with $0.10 per MB and the US coming in third with $0.08. The US rate was largely thanks to AT&T's recent introduction of the 200MB data plan for $15, but OTI still criticized it for being several times the lowest available rate in India, which came out to $0.0004 per MB, and Sweden, at $0.01 per MB (an example that rules out many of the "purchasing power" arguments that might otherwise be made).

.

 

[SineCosine]

just wondering, where do you get this information from? I would like to see the average wage to price ratio to see if that is actually the cause or not

He might be using GDP per capita as the average wage..
Or something like that.

The prices of the plans..
Erm..
He might just have a lot of time to google them up :thup: