Users here in the US have to pay at least $59.99 for a complete cell phone package, with Canada coming in at #1 costing US$67.50 for an equivalent package. While India and Honk Kong came in with the cheapest complete plans: $12.90 and $13.50.
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US & Canada Have Priciest Cell Phone Plans
- Thread starter John_Keck
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Arcygenical
Fully [H]
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85$ CAD for what I'd get at the 40$ price level in Ohio... Go Canada!
I don't have one and I will not get one untill Telus quits bragging to the sharholders that 3/4 of its profits is made from cell phones. That means to me I would be ripped off if I owned one. So untill the profit margin goes down or I buy their shares
, or I use an old strictly a cell phone a friend gave me,and pay 10$ min a month and suck up the 40cent a minute I pay vs 1.5 cent a minute long distance on my land line. I wish I had a legit business so I could write the dam thing off of my income tax.WorldExclusive
[H]F Junkie
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I have Boost Mobile with BlackBerry Service for $60/month and no contract. Voice/Text/Data Unlimited anywhere in the US. Operates on the Sprint Network. I just use my phone for talking, text and email. Anything beyond that I have other devices for that don't have monthly fees i.e. camera/video recorder, video games and all the other unnecessary stuff that runs up your cell phone bill.
Arcygenical
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Represent
$80/mo from Rogers. 500Mb
Ask to step up to their 30$ 6GB promotion. It was only an extra 5$ for me.
We also get the latest smart phone for $200 after MIR, which I think most other places pay an arm and a leg for.
http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone?mco=OTY2ODA2OQ
(only smart phone i knew by name, annoying naming schemes are annoying.)
500-600 euros ~ $700 usd, not sure what the average income over there is, but imo thats a lot. I'm not entirely sure but I dont think the UK has subsidized phones.
http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone?mco=OTY2ODA2OQ
(only smart phone i knew by name, annoying naming schemes are annoying.)
500-600 euros ~ $700 usd, not sure what the average income over there is, but imo thats a lot. I'm not entirely sure but I dont think the UK has subsidized phones.
Wow, who'd have thought that countries with extremely large areas to cover with infrastructure and less consumers per area would have higher costs than small countries with much less infrastructure area to span and more consumers... It's magic!
Next up, the government will use these statistics to "prove" that capitalism doesn't work and for an excuse to tax more and take from individuals to provide better service as an entitlement to the people of America.
Next up, the government will use these statistics to "prove" that capitalism doesn't work and for an excuse to tax more and take from individuals to provide better service as an entitlement to the people of America.
I thought they stopped offering that!? I guess I'll have to call tomorrow.
I'm getting SICK OF HEARING THIS crap! The country's overal population density is NO EXCUSE for SHITTY SERVICE in DENSELY POPULATED URBAN AREAS. And it's just mind-boggling why people defend these greedy telecoms anyways.
i am really considering switching from verizon to boost, here my single phone is $83 per month after taxes, where as on boost it would be $53 total.
i just need to decide on which phone i want
Zepher
[H]ipster Replacement
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I am with Sprint and pay $33/month after taxes for unlimited everything*.
*Google Voice gives me unlimited calling.
I am currently using an HTC Touch Pro 2 and will probably switch to an Android Phone in May.
*Google Voice gives me unlimited calling.
I am currently using an HTC Touch Pro 2 and will probably switch to an Android Phone in May.
Evil Timmy
Weaksauce
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Not that I want to rub it in any further, but on top of that, two of the phone providers in Hong Kong offer ~$7USD unlimited international calling plans. A few years back I was paying under $30 a month for unlimited EVERYTHING, including 3G video calling. Phones aren't usually subsidized much, but they're also unlocked. I was shocked how expensive it was when I moved back.
Cat1yst, and todlerix you are NOT getting phones cheaper than the rest of the world. In fact you are mortgaging the phone at extremely high interest rate, which is why our north american wireless rate is so high with long term contracts (2 years for US, 3 years for Canada).
Your paying less is just a illusion that made it easier to swallow initially but over time factoring interest rates you end up paying more at the end of the contract versus other countries where they have freedom to choose whatever phone they want and whatever wireless plan they want. Phone manufacturers sell their phones directly to local big and small phone stores that is not tied to any wireless carriers.
Your paying less is just a illusion that made it easier to swallow initially but over time factoring interest rates you end up paying more at the end of the contract versus other countries where they have freedom to choose whatever phone they want and whatever wireless plan they want. Phone manufacturers sell their phones directly to local big and small phone stores that is not tied to any wireless carriers.
300min/6gb/free incoming = $36 from rogers
Haha very nice! I only got 200 min/unlim text/free incoming/fido to fido/ early evenings etc. If I call into retentions I might be able to drop another 10 or so I think heh. But for $55/mo with my features I guess I can't complain.
I heard someone at rogers is paying $22 for what I'm getting but with 1000 mins
, I don't know how he managed to get that..Ashbringer
Supreme [H]ardness
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Price fixing is a bitch.
I think for most providers, a 4-person family plan can make that $60/month mark for talk/text and unlimited data.
I don't know about other providers but verizon's family plan is fairly customizable for individual family members.
Haha very nice! I only got 200 min/unlim text/free incoming/fido to fido/ early evenings etc. If I call into retentions I might be able to drop another 10 or so I think heh. But for $55/mo with my features I guess I can't complain.
I heard someone at rogers is paying $22 for what I'm getting but with 1000 mins
I think this one takes the cake for the cheapest plan i've ever seen, being a smooth talker probably helps with retentions... also rogers screwing up your bill can't hurt either.
Of course theres also the recent mobilicity plan with unlimited calling/text/data in north america for $35.
On the flip side theres my cousin who pays $85 for 250min and 1gb of data, and thats what majority of customers usually pay.
Man this report is quite biased. What kind of sensationalist journalist goes around titling articles with "US, Canada have priciest cell phone plans in the WORLD" when the report organizer OTI looked into 11 countries? 11 countries does not a good report make when many many more than 11 countries have cell phone coverage and plans. Hell 11 countries hardly covers even Europe very well. I can make a report look any way I want it to if I leave out a bunch of countries that would likely change the results. Take the country I am in - New Zealand (being a US citizen myself living overseas now) - the cell phone coverage rates and charges I am sure are higher than US, but I would be were not considered due to the poor sampling size.
Not to mention I am not sure how the report figures this because I didnt get any indication from the article, but what are they basing the monetary figure on? US currency I am guessing, which might skew the results further in countries where the US dollar is stronger against currency wise. Sounds to me like the origin of this report is an attempt to make consumers demand reductions from their providers, not that I am defended this, just lets call a "report" for what it is. Slanted customer sampling.
Not to mention I am not sure how the report figures this because I didnt get any indication from the article, but what are they basing the monetary figure on? US currency I am guessing, which might skew the results further in countries where the US dollar is stronger against currency wise. Sounds to me like the origin of this report is an attempt to make consumers demand reductions from their providers, not that I am defended this, just lets call a "report" for what it is. Slanted customer sampling.
Stone Cold
[H]ard|Gawd
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Yeah, makes no sense. Here's something else that makes no sense. Why is India's cell phone service so cheap when the labor there costs almost nothing?
Excellent point. I hadn't linked cell phone cost to a failure of capitalism. I'm going to write a letter to the government and tell them to socialize cell phones.
Michaelius
Supreme [H]ardness
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300min/6gb/free incoming = $36 from rogers
Wait what do you mean by free incoming?
In US do you have to pay for incoming phone calls normally ?
D
Deleted member 134608
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I used to work for a Telus dealer years ago.
Telus claimed back in 02 that every tower cost them a million bucks to put up. This makes them liers or morons.
There's technically only a few tower providers in Canada and this is one of the main reasons the pricing is so high.
Bell leases its towers from Telus in the west and Telus leases from Bell in the east. So they are not really competing per say as they make money from eachother. These started as CDMA towers.
Verizon in the US is a partner of this network. Verizon customers use Telus while in Canada and Telus use Verizon in the US. This partnership keeps Verizon from moving into Canada, as they would lose this partnership and need to build their own towers.
The TDMA, now GSM towers from Rogers are the other towers. AT&T owns Rogers, so thats why you don't see AT&T up here directly.
All the little providers (Virgin, Fido, etc.) lease from Telus/Bell/Rogers. Kind of makes it hard to compete no?
Telecom in Canada has always been on the borderline of collusion to prevent other companies from coming in and competing. Rather you pay through the nose to lease a network already setup or build your own.
This was all learned a long time ago when AGT (Alberta Government Telco) was privitized to become Telus. Other landline companies wanted to move into Alberta, but were told they would have to pay a fortune to lease the lines from Telus as they owned them (even though tax payers payed for this network to be built in this first place). This made competing impossible, except for the more lucrative long distance business.
I'm sure Telus learned at that time that wireless competition would become an issue so they bought BCTel, QuebecTel, and Clearnet wireless years ago.
So in short, its not just because 30 million people are spread across a land area bigger than Russia that makes plans expensive here.
Telus claimed back in 02 that every tower cost them a million bucks to put up. This makes them liers or morons.
There's technically only a few tower providers in Canada and this is one of the main reasons the pricing is so high.
Bell leases its towers from Telus in the west and Telus leases from Bell in the east. So they are not really competing per say as they make money from eachother. These started as CDMA towers.
Verizon in the US is a partner of this network. Verizon customers use Telus while in Canada and Telus use Verizon in the US. This partnership keeps Verizon from moving into Canada, as they would lose this partnership and need to build their own towers.
The TDMA, now GSM towers from Rogers are the other towers. AT&T owns Rogers, so thats why you don't see AT&T up here directly.
All the little providers (Virgin, Fido, etc.) lease from Telus/Bell/Rogers. Kind of makes it hard to compete no?
Telecom in Canada has always been on the borderline of collusion to prevent other companies from coming in and competing. Rather you pay through the nose to lease a network already setup or build your own.
This was all learned a long time ago when AGT (Alberta Government Telco) was privitized to become Telus. Other landline companies wanted to move into Alberta, but were told they would have to pay a fortune to lease the lines from Telus as they owned them (even though tax payers payed for this network to be built in this first place). This made competing impossible, except for the more lucrative long distance business.
I'm sure Telus learned at that time that wireless competition would become an issue so they bought BCTel, QuebecTel, and Clearnet wireless years ago.
So in short, its not just because 30 million people are spread across a land area bigger than Russia that makes plans expensive here.
cacadodo666
n00b
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- Aug 31, 2010
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I rather have an unsubsidized unlocked phone that you can move from carrier to carrier and cheap plans.
And this population density bullshit. GTA, GVR, Montreal and all the big metropolitan areas have 2000+ people per sq mile. Fuck you Rogers and Bell.
And this population density bullshit. GTA, GVR, Montreal and all the big metropolitan areas have 2000+ people per sq mile. Fuck you Rogers and Bell.
Yeah, I'm not paying for a cell phone in Canada. I'll take whatever my employer will give me for free. Now, where did I put that POS Blackberry, anyway...
No one said it was, but I expect the researchers couldn't get numbers from mainland China--and the competing carriers would probably be different anyway. Ditto for Taiwan.
Proportionally it's about the same here I'd bet. Most people I see have BBs or other smartphones.
It was until 1997, and still is in a lot of ways. It's usually considered seperate from mainland China in most stats and such.