[LINK] US, Canada have priciest cell phone plans in the world

[Sylvano]

<quote>
Overview

Preliminary results from the July–December 2009 National Health Interview
Survey (NHIS) indicate that the number of American homes with only
wireless telephones continues to grow. One of every four American homes
(24.5%) had only wireless telephones (also known as cellular telephones,
cell phones, or mobile phones) during the last half of 2009—an increase of
1.8 percentage points since the first half of 2009. In addition, one of
every seven American homes (14.9%) had a landline yet received all or
almost all calls on wireless telephones. This report presents the most
up-to-date estimates available from the federal government concerning the
size and characteristics of these populations.
</quote>

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/wireless201005.pdf


Sylvano


On Mon, October 18, 2010 9:45 am, Ivan Trundle wrote:
>
> On 18/10/2010, at 10:18 AM, Kim Holburn wrote:
>
>> What a pity they didn't include Australia.
>>
>> http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/10/us-canada-lead-the-world-in-expensive-cell-packages.ars
>
> Anecdotal evidence tells me:
>
> 1. A majority of my US friends and contacts no longer use fixed lines, due
> to expense. Mobile telephony is all they need.
>
> 2. A mobile phone 'package' often include such things as unlimited calls
> to either others on the same network, or more often others on the same
> 'bill' (i.e. a family can have four mobiles and only pay one bill as if
> they were using one phone). This makes it extremely attractive even at the
> costs quoted.
>
> 3. Mobile phone users pay for incoming minutes as well as outgoing in the
> US.
>
> 4. Data plans in the US, from what I am told, are still so generous as to
> be virtually free for many of my friends: they have special packages that
> bundle voice and data in a way to make data effectively free, even though
> standard plans do not advertise this.
>
> Also, it's a factor of what the market will bear and what infrastructure
> supports it. There are still many places in the US which have sub-standard
> mobile telephony.
>
> Mind you, I can name many places in Australia where the mobile phone won't
> work, and in places where populations live and work.
>
> I think OTI nailed it by asserting that "cost structures varied as a
> direct result of competition and innovation in each country".
>
> I wonder what the NBN will do for mobile telephony here?
>
> iT
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