Article comparing cost of cellphone plans of different countries

[zerocool84]

Conclusion

It is clear that some countries offer service at consistently lower prices than others. The United States tends to fall in a band of countries that charge higher prices to individual wireless consumers for everything except pure voice service where prices are comparable. Cost structures and business models undoubtedly vary as a result of the level of competition and innovation in each country and it is essential that in the countries that have high prices such as the U.S., we carefully consider additional steps that could be taken with respect to encouraging competition or imposing regulation such that the US becomes an engine of innovation for better and more competitively priced service offerings.

No surprise that the US is ridiculously expensive. Surprised to see Canada even worse.

http://oti.newamerica.net/publicati...nal_comparison_of_cell_phone_plans_and_prices

 

[Insomniator]

Its a horrible rip off here in America, but EVERYONE has these plans and don't seem to care about sending $100+ a month to be able to use the internet on their phone.... which they also pay for at home... or can get for free all day at work.

 

[theeedude]

Maybe Virgin Mobile $25 plan will start a new trend. There is a huge relatively untapped market of people who want smartphones, but not for $80/month.

 

[tommo123]

damn! that's shocking to me (in the UK). usually you yanks have it far better than we do with this (electronics) kind of thing

 

[magomago]

I got an idea

(a) Extract from the market as much as possible. The US is wealthier, so they will try to charge more. I'd be curious to see the price of the smartphone contract as a percent of income

(b) its so much fucking easier to cover densely populated areas. Look at TW or HK prices. Extremely densely populated urban areas....that have very cheap contracts (or so it appears to us). In the US, suburbia is the norm, not the exception. The ultra majority of the US doesn't live in huge urban areas. Going to need a lot more infrastructre built, which is probably why we move and transition slower - bigger sunk cost means companies charge more and wait longer to recoup their investment before making the next upgrade. Probably a much higher Tower Cost / Population Density figure - you simply don't get as many potential customers per tower you have setup.

 

[zerocool84]

I got an idea

(a) Extract from the market as much as possible. The US is wealthier, so they will try to charge more. I'd be curious to see the price of the smartphone contract as a percent of income

(b) its so much fucking easier to cover densely populated areas. Look at TW or HK prices. Extremely densely populated urban areas....that have very cheap contracts (or so it appears to us). In the US, suburbia is the norm, not the exception. The ultra majority of the US doesn't live in huge urban areas. Going to need a lot more infrastructre built, which is probably why we move and transition slower - bigger sunk cost means companies charge more and wait longer to recoup their investment before making the next upgrade. Probably a much higher Tower Cost / Population Density figure - you simply don't get as many potential customers per tower you have setup.

Actually last year, 2009 was the first year that more people lived in urban areas than suburbs in the U.S.

 

[Monster_Munch]

The graph just gives me the impression that it's cheaper to provide cell phone coverage for densely populated areas.

Hong Kong, India and Japan are very densely populated and are very cheap.

US, Canada and Finland are sparsely populated and more expensive.

Although by my logic South Korea should be cheaper than Sweden.

 

[Deeko]

No surprise that the US is ridiculously expensive. Surprised to see Canada even worse.

http://oti.newamerica.net/publicati...nal_comparison_of_cell_phone_plans_and_prices

I'm not surprised. The US and Canada have to cover a lot more area than those smaller countries. That's a lot more towers, a lot more infrastructure, etc. Makes perfect sense.

 

[kaerflog]

Yes, but ATT still made over $4 billions last qtr.
I can't wait fot T-mobile and their $10 200mb data plan.
Perfect for people wanting smartphones but rarely uses data.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

the reason we have this is people need dirt cheap subsidized handsets, and to get on the latest handset, we jump around carriers... as a result they rely on expensiveass plans so people drool over cheap phones and complain about $529 Nexus Ones being too $$$

 

[TheStu]

the reason we have this is people need dirt cheap subsidized handsets, and to get on the latest handset, we jump around carriers... as a result they rely on expensiveass plans so people drool over cheap phones and complain about $529 Nexus Ones being too $$$

Are the phones mostly unsubsidized overseas then? I remember that when my buddy came back over from England he was lamenting the fact that he couldn't easily pick up just a prepaid SIM for his cell like he could across the pond.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Are the phones mostly unsubsidized overseas then? I remember that when my buddy came back over from England he was lamenting the fact that he couldn't easily pick up just a prepaid SIM for his cell like he could across the pond.

There are still subsidies, but I feel that the way we've designed phone exclusivity and stuff, you HAVE to jump carriers. That plus the GSM/CDMA fiasco. While there are phones that you get discounts on across the board for signing a contract, not everyone jumps carriers all the time on Asia. You just kinda stick with your carrier and buy an unlocked phone.

But it seems we focus too much effort on trying to get people to jump from iPhones to Droids which involves some sort of teaser rate. That's why carriers upped the ETFs and still maintain heavy voice rates. Before we were tempting people with slider text phones that really cost like $300 to $400 tops for these featurephones. But now we want to tempt everyone with a $500-$600 smartphone. The carriers just don't have that kind of money to keep throwing around, so somehow we gotta pay for it in the end.

 

[kaerflog]

the reason we have this is people need dirt cheap subsidized handsets, and to get on the latest handset, we jump around carriers... as a result they rely on expensiveass plans so people drool over cheap phones and complain about $529 Nexus Ones being too $$$

You bring up a good point.
Do the chart differentiate if the monthly cost are subsidized/unsubsodized rates ?
It cost more here because all the plans are subsidized plans.
Only T-mobile has unsubsidized plans that are ~$20 cheaper than normal rates.

 

[MrX8503]

Cell phone plans are pretty expensive. I don't think I would have a smartphone if it costed me $80/month.

 

[magomago]

Actually last year, 2009 was the first year that more people lived in urban areas than suburbs in the U.S.

REALLLY now? How surprising. How does it classify urban vs suburbs?

For example, I'd consider the vast vast majority of LA as suburbs...only downtown would truly be urban from my view. There is a huge difference between having building 10 houses on an acre (which would be verrry packed, but I've seen it here in SoCal) vs a 50 story tower, where each floor has two apartments. Even going to more low density urban areas that I saw in Taipei (capital of TW), the same acre will hold several towers, each one having 4-5 floors, and each floor being split into 2 apartments.

I do want to live in an urban enviornment since i like having everything so accessible...but its a discussion for another day

 

[Monster_Munch]

Here in the UK you can get a pretty good plan for £15 (~$24) a month if you buy your phone separately, but most people tend to get a package that comes with a "free" phone so they pay around £35 (~$55) a month

 

[tommo123]

depends on greed as well of course. the htc desire was going fairly cheap until it sold out everywhere continuously. tmobile originally had it for £18/month on an 18month contract.

i got mine for £20 inc 3GB data - most places are crappy now and limit you to 500MB which is nothing.

 

[Deeko]

I mean, you call that greed, I call it supply and demand....