Smart Tech for Small Biz

U.S. Cell Phone Carriers Screwing Us Five Times Over

Tired of feeling second rate because Europe and Asia has faster Internet service for less money? Then don't look at your cell phone, because DSL Reports' story, Consumers in U.S., Canada Pay More for Wireless, describes how US cell phone carriers charge us five times more than they charge Europeans. Except the Spanish, the unlucky European country that gets charged American rates for some reason.

Want the lowest rates? Move to the Netherlands, where they pay $131.44 per year versus what we pay in the U.S. for the same service, $635.85.

Of course, the cell phone companies say we're actually getting a great deal for a great price, notwithstanding paying five times more for the same service as in the Netherlands or Sweden ($137.94 per year). We just aren't looking at the numbers quite right. Which numbers? They didn't say. I'm guessing the executive bonus money pool.

Or maybe the U.S. cell phone carriers would like to explain why text messaging prices have jumped 200 percent in two years. Since texts are transferred over tower control channels that exist for the small traffic to manage towers leaving huge amounts of free bandwidth for texting, the profit margins are wonderful for the phone companies. They pay nothing for a text, you pay 20 cents. Isn't that fair?

Perhaps one day the carriers will have so many lobbyists one of them will explain to the media how they come up with their pricing levels. Right now, however, the lobbyists are too busy cajoling our elected leaders for more billions in stimulus money. Not for us, of course, but for the executive bonus money pool.

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