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US Cell Phone Plans Among World's Most Expensive

Posted by timothy on from the yes-but-we-have-cheap-gasoline dept.

Albanach writes "An OECD report published today has shown moderate cell phone users in the United States are paying some of the highest rates in the world . Average US plans cost $52.99 per month compared to an average of $10.95 in Finland. The full report is available only to subscribers, however Excel sheets of the raw data are available to download." (You'll find those Excel sheets — which open just fine in OpenOffice — on the summary page linked above.)

20 of 827 comments (clear)

  1. Stupid prices by sopssa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is what I've always wondered, but learned from Slashdot comments. Why the hell mobile plans are so costly in US? I have the largest plan available from my phone company, 2500 minutes / 2500 sms per month and unlimited 3G internet. And that's still only 29 euro per month. And I did actually use that 3G internet connection for a month while waiting for adsl connection to be set up for my new apartment (hell, even running a server from it). No transfer limits or anything like that.

    Yeah, mobile companies have extra costs from providing their infrastructure, but it just seems a lot what they ask in US. Sweden is mostly woods and non-urban areas too, so why is it done better here?

    Maybe voice your opinion to the companies so they stop charging so much?

    1. Re:Stupid prices by EvilNTUser · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's because US carriers compete based on who has the iPhone and who has the Pre rather than network price/quality. Then users "buy" $800 devices for "$99" and make fun of uncrippled foreign cell phone brands because they're "so expensive", and have useless features like application downloads from Sourceforge.

      --
      My Sig: SEGV
    2. Re:Stupid prices by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 5, Funny

      That sounds pretty socialist there. I bet the Government even helped setup some towers.

      Here in the good ole USA. We have Competition. None of that GSM only crap. We have true competition between carriers with CDMA, GSM, iDEN, etc. That way for any given area of good reception, there's 3x the number of towers. TRUE competition.

    3. Re:Stupid prices by Amouth · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What I'd be intrested to see. .instead of how much we all pay is.. how many customers are served Per tower - and how many towers vs area vs coverage.

      You maay have the largest plan for sweeden.. but do you roam when you go to the UK? even if not.. all of Western Europe is ~1/3 the size of the US and has 1/3 MORE people

      comes out to be:

      Western Europe | 514 people/mi^2
      United States | 86.5 people/mi^2

      Basicly it takes 5 times the area to hold the same numebr of people - asume population was evenly spread (i know it isn't) it should cost 5 times as much to provide for the same number of people..

      "Average US plans cost $52.99 per month compared to an average of $10.95 in Finland."

      Assume the Finland price for all of western Europe - and we pay 5x the cost for something 5x as expensive to provide..

      People don't realize how large the US is.. and that most plans now days there is no roaming from sea to sea.. thats alot of area to provide for..

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
    4. Re:Stupid prices by Minwee · · Score: 5, Funny

      Western Europe | 514 people/mi^2
      United States | 86.5 people/mi^2

      Basicly it takes 5 times the area to hold the same numebr of people.

      That's amazing. I knew that people in the USA were bigger than usual, but I had no idea they were that big.

    5. Re:Stupid prices by AvitarX · · Score: 5, Interesting

      We need a VAT in the US.

      We need to tax the bad (over-spending/under-saving) and not the good (working and earning).

      This is not true around the world (Germany for example could arguably be blamed for over-saving), but the US desperately needs to tax consumption rather than production.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    6. Re:Stupid prices by realisticradical · · Score: 5, Insightful
      That's exactly what Amouth was saying. European plans can be less expensive because the population is much denser and therefore easier to serve (fewer towers). Also since each company only needs to serve a single country customers aren't paying for free access all across Europe.

      On the other hand I think US carriers are guilty of heavy upselling. If I live in a dense city in a dense area (Boston, New York, DC, etc) and do 99% of my calling from there why can't I pay for a local plan and avoid subsidizing the tower/person costs of residents of Wyoming?

    7. Re:Stupid prices by MrHanky · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or how about you use Finland's population density instead, which turns out to be almost exactly half of that of the U.S. That pretty much destroys your argument.

    8. Re:Stupid prices by DJRumpy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or more properly, get government regulation in place to stop the pricing schemes that all of the US providers are in cahoots with. There is no reason sending a text message should be so expensive or even a voice call once the infrastructure is in place.

    9. Re:Stupid prices by tholomyes · · Score: 5, Funny

      Haven't you heard of Paul Bunyan, who was 25 feet tall? Or George Washington, twelve stories high, made of radiation? It's something in the water over here.

      --
      When did the future switch from being a promise to a threat? -C. Palahniuk
    10. Re:Stupid prices by koiransuklaa · · Score: 5, Informative

      Europe has a larger population compared to US, yet it has a lesser amount of land to cover with cell sites.

      As a result, people/tower ratio is quite good in Europe and partially contributes to better plans.

      ...yet Finland, the most sparsely populated country in Europe tops the chart. I think you'll need another explanation.

    11. Re:Stupid prices by BAKup · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Did you happen to know that Pharma spends more for advertising in the US than R&D?

      How about we get like almost every other country in the world, and ban prescription drug advertising, that would cut down on their costs dramatically, and make drugs cheaper for everyone.

       

  2. Yeah! We're number one! by line-bundle · · Score: 5, Funny

    So we aim to be number one in everything:

    healthcare costs
    shortest vacations
    .
    .
    .

    1. Re:Yeah! We're number one! by VirginMary · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > about 70% of the people in the US LIKE what they have

      As a European living in the United States, I think that is because the people suffering by far the most in the US are so ill-informed about other Western democracies and so brain-washed from an early age, that they actually are proud of the abuse they're suffering in this country! After all they constantly hear they're "no. 1". What they generally don't hear is that the US is "no. 1" in the percentage of uninsured children etc. Even the ability to legally bribe politician here, called "campaign contributions", is called "freedom of speech." I guess corporations and rich people have much more "freedom of speech" than someone with a median income.

      .

      --
      When 1person suffers from a delusion,it is called insanity.When many people suffer from a delusion,it is called religion
  3. comparing apples and oranges..... by Shakrai · · Score: 5, Informative

    In Europe (and most other regions outside of the US and Canada for that matter) the cellular user is not expected to pay the full cost of having wireless service. This is why other users who call your cell phone pay a premium for doing so and why the wireless customers over there often have free incoming calls. This is known as a "caller pays" model.

    The US has (for better or worse) adopted a "subscriber pays" model wherein the wireless customer pays a higher price and for incoming minutes but those who call him and do so at the same rate as any other phone call (free in many/most cases). The US also has many perks that aren't part of most calling plans in other countries -- unlimited calling to X numbers, unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited mobile to mobile, etc, etc. Add in all of these perks and break down the monthly rate by the number of minutes used and many Americans wind up paying around $0.02-$0.03 per minute for their cellular phones.

    It doesn't really tell us much to see a per month cost break down without looking at all of these other factors. In any case if you want to copy something from the rest of the world regarding wireless business models I would look at copying the concept of unlocked phones that are separate from contracts long before I'd look at copying their rate plans. I rather like to be able to call my friends who have cell phones without paying a penalty for doing so.

    --
    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    1. Re:comparing apples and oranges..... by oneandoneis2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Uh.. those perks have been available in England for years. Plus when we get a phone with a contract, the phone is usually free. And can be upgraded every year, for free.

      I'm visiting America for a couple months right now, so I've bought a cell phone for while I'm here, and I've been appalled at how bad your cell service is. You guys have phone companies boasting in adverts that they drop your call less than any other network. FFS, why do you put up with them dropping your call at all?!? Unless you drive through a lot of tunnels or live in serious wilderness, if your phone dropped a call in England as often as they seem to over here, the network responsible would be out of business long before your contract had a chance to expire.

      And the nuisance calls.. I bought a brand new phone and gave my number to maybe three people. I've received over a dozen calls from unknown numbers, all of which Google has identified as scam callers. And I've been charged for being called by these so-and-so's.

      Cell phone services over here are just dreadful. Why you all pay so much for such mediocre service, I really don't know.

      --
      So.. it has come to this
    2. Re:comparing apples and oranges..... by cyn1c77 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Cell phone services over here are just dreadful. Why you all pay so much for such mediocre service, I really don't know.

      Do you know how to pay less for better service in the US?

      I didn't think so.

      There's your answer. In the US, you have the choice of high-priced, mediocre service or no service at all. To make matters worse, a cell phone has almost become an essential tool for most Americans. So if you want better and cheaper service, your only (unrealistic) choice is to leave the country.

      Ideally, our capitalist economy should keep all the prices down, but the cellular giants collude to keep prices high and service poor. They also lobby the government to prevent any mandated change.

      It's completely appalling, but very very hard to change as a voter choosing from an extremely limited subset of corrupt politicians. That said, no country is perfect. I am sure there are some things about the US that you find superior to Britain as well.

  4. Some other info about Finland by Albanach · · Score: 5, Informative

    I should probably have added this when I submitted.

    In these threads, there are often comments about population density in Europe making coverage more effective. Finland has a population density of 16/km2 - that's lower than Maine and 37 other US states.

    Perhaps you think Finland must be tiny, in fact it's land area is 305470 sq km, that's bigger than Arizona. There are only five US states larger than Finland.

    Maybe coverage is actually really poor, restricted to big cities? Take a look at this coverage map.

    http://www.gsmworld.com/cgi-bin/ni_map.pl?cc=fi&net=te

    Do any US states have coverage like that?

  5. Re:in the US? by radish · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously, I don't know what he's smoking. I pay roughly the same in income tax here in the US (once you add up federal, state and things like social security tax) as I did in the UK, but also get to pay for medical. Awesome!

    --

    ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

  6. Pissing match by mcgrew · · Score: 5, Funny

    Perhaps you think Finland must be tiny, in fact it's land area is 305470 sq km, that's bigger than Arizona. There are only five US states larger than Finland. ...and Texas is two of them.

    A Texan, an Arizonan, and an Alaskan were sitting around the campfire talking about how tough their respective citizens were. The The Arizonan says "boy, the average guy in my state sits in the 120 degree sun on a roof putting shingles on."

    The Texan says "In Texas we're bull riding at age ten!"

    The Alaskan didn't say anything, he just stood there stirring the fire with his dick.

    --
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