How much are you paying on your cellfone bills?

Discussion in 'Chit-Chat' started by JChen99, Oct 20, 2006.

  1. ctjcad

    ctjcad Regular Member

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    ..gasp, say what???.:eek: :rolleyes: ..hope i'm not reading that wrong!!..only (US)$6.50/month for 500 minutes??...how abt weekends and weeknights??..is that incl. in the plan as well??...
    Here in the U.S., as a sample, a reg. 500 min plus free/unlimited weekends and weeknights plan, starts @ around $30.00/mo(plus taxes, surcharges and other fees)..Even then i know a lot of people don't use that much minutes..:confused: :rolleyes: :p :D ;)
     
    #21 ctjcad, Nov 5, 2006
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2006
  2. cooler

    cooler Regular Member

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    if u think that's bad, canada is more pricier, we got hosed:

    here is cut and paste from telus for 30 cdn/month

    Super Talk 30
    monthly plan rate $30/mth (24USD)

    included airtime up to 200 minutes
    unlimited local nights and weekends
    unlimited local mobile-to-mobile calling between TELUS clients †
    free 5 pm early nights and weekends for 1 year ±

    included calling features call forwarding
    call waiting
    conference calling

    included SPARK™ features free SPARK bundle for 3 months ª

    monthly system access fee $6.95

    monthly enhanced 911 emergency service access charge 75¢

    +gst and pst

    -------
    40 $/mth (35 USD) is gets 350 minutes

    Super Talk 40

    monthly plan rate $40
    50% off for 3 months †

    included airtime up to 350 minutes
    unlimited local nights and weekends
    unlimited local mobile-to-mobile calling between TELUS clients ‡
    unlimited local calling for 3 months ±
    free 5 pm early nights and weekends for 1 year †
     
    #22 cooler, Nov 5, 2006
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2006
  3. JChen99

    JChen99 Regular Member

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    City Fido ranges from 40-51 bux a month can get you unlimited local calling... however it's usually about 400-700 up front. As for the plan is no longer available and the only way to obtain it is to get it from someone who has it.

    ps. the Fido student plan is better :p
    Cooler... Telus is one of the most expensive providers... if you're looking at talk time alone... the only benefit of Telus is Spark
     
  4. Freestyle

    Freestyle Regular Member

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    i pay 10 bucks cdn plus tax
    =D
     
  5. FEND.

    FEND. Regular Member

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    it's true though what you say. I've been to hong kong for model UN debates, and always see the locals strapped up with huge headphones or talking on their phones a lot... Probably Hong kong is the best place to find out the effects of cellphones on the human brain ;)
     
  6. SWC_Ant

    SWC_Ant Regular Member

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    Whats the Fido student plan? :eek:

    Well... Rogers gave me a good deal on a good cell phone for signing the 3 year contract with them on the student plan... so I can't complain much
     
  7. taneepak

    taneepak Regular Member

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    Beware of signing long term contracts of more than 2 years on offers that look attractive. This is a common marketing strategy of cellphone operators to pre-empt you from taking advantage of better offers from other operators that will come on line soon.
     
  8. Pete LSD

    Pete LSD Regular Member

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    Yeap, North American wireless and wired telecom services are overpriced. Those giga-bit fiber connection in HK sure is nice. :D
     
  9. JChen99

    JChen99 Regular Member

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    Same thing Fido has... xcept it's /s billing...
    but yes... Rogers does have nicer fones >.>

    taneepak, the industry here is different than in Asia... not signing a contract will mean providing your own cellfone... that or paying double of what Asians pay for cellfones... that and you wont be able to switch carriers until your fone gets unlocked >.>
     
  10. taneepak

    taneepak Regular Member

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    With such a huge market America should be much cheaper than Hong Kong. Here in Hong Kong we can switch cellphone carriers anytime and still retain our cellphone number. We switch whenever another carrier has something cheaper and/or better to offer. What you need is more competition and a more competition-oriented telecommunications Government Authority to free up the market a bit.
     
  11. Pete LSD

    Pete LSD Regular Member

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    The competition is not as fierce or shall we say the old bells lobby the government and the consumers get the short end of the stick.

     
  12. JChen99

    JChen99 Regular Member

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    You have to realize that the country is N times bigger than countries such as HK, Taiwan or Japan. For the towers they need to set is also N times more. Also the technology that different carriers use may be different. As Pete illustrated in his last post, we have no competition here. There are essentially 3 companies that do post paid service, which run on 2 networks whereas in asia there are usually close to 5-6 or even more.
     
  13. SWC_Ant

    SWC_Ant Regular Member

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    This is a bit off topic, but is it just me or does there seem to be little if ANY sort of competition in terms of products and services in North America? none that I can think of off the top of my head anyways. That's why signing a 3 year contract is good, or I'd pay more than double of what I paid for my phone...

    Asian services and product prices are much more competitive...
     
  14. taneepak

    taneepak Regular Member

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    I think cellphones transmission is by line of sight. It would be economically inexpensive, on a transmission/relay tower per number of customers basis. If China, with its no less difficult terrain and the same need for transmission/relay towers, can do it at low cost, why can't the U.S. do better?
    Maybe, it is not enough to cut down one giant Bell into many baby Bells. Just open up the market for some cellphone operators from China.:D
     
  15. Pete LSD

    Pete LSD Regular Member

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    Doesn't matter. the Bells in the States as well as Cables lobby the politicians heavily to keep the market closed. Canada simply do not have enough population to eat up the extra capacity. This subject has been heavily discussed at www.dslreports.com The U.S. residents can't understand why Asia can have giga-bit internet access by fiber and not in the US. The technology comes from the US and Europe in the first place.

     
    #35 Pete LSD, Nov 8, 2006
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2006
  16. SWC_Ant

    SWC_Ant Regular Member

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    oh, the cruel reality of life...:eek:
     
  17. cooler

    cooler Regular Member

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    we got hosed

    Here is a snip from a long business article
    ------------------------------------------------------

    New players line up for wireless overhaul
    Ottawa to seek input


    Toronto Hydro Telecom president David Dobbyn is among industry voices pushing for an overhaul of the Canadian wireless landscape. Fortunately for this contingent, change is in the air - literally.

    Photograph by : Peter J. Thompson, National Post

    Peter Nowak, Financial Post
    Published: Saturday, November 11, 2006

    For most people the cellphone is just a nifty gadget, but for David Dobbyn it's a key reason for Canada's declining international economic competitiveness.

    The president of Toronto Hydro Telecom Inc. was recently in Germany, where he couldn't help but get jealous of the cellphone plans on offer. British operator O2 PLC, for example, was touting unlimited calling for 19 euros, about $27, a month.

    "The equivalent plan doesn't exist here, or would cost you upward of $80 if it did," Mr. Dobbyn says.

    High prices are stifling cellphone uptake and usage and thus preventing Canadians from realizing the true benefits of mobility, which in turn is holding back the country's productivity growth, he says.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMh6O7HuI08
     
    #37 cooler, Nov 11, 2006
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2006
  18. baihaki_as

    baihaki_as Regular Member

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    i think indonesia is the most expensive in asia, in here for 500/mnt it will cost u about $60 but it most like for the same operator, with other operator that will cost 20-30% more, not included sms
     
  19. cooler

    cooler Regular Member

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    Canadian cell phone bills double U.S. counterparts
    Higher costs blamed on lack of competition

    Peter Nowak
    Financial Post


    Tuesday, January 30, 2007



    CREDIT: canada.com


    Canada is well behind the United States in adopting cellphones and will likely lag even more this year because calling prices are double those south of the border, a Moody's Investors Service research report says.

    Canadian wireless penetration reached about 56% of the population — or about 17 million subscribers — in 2006 and should climb to 61% by the end of this year, the company said in its report on the telecommunications industry, which is released today. The United States, however, has about 76% penetration now and has been increasing its lead over Canada since 2002.

    The main culprit for the discrepancy is a lack of competition among Canada's three national cellphone providers — Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. — the report's lead author Darren Kirk said. Restrictions on ownership of telecommunications companies, which require such firms to be 80% owned and operated by Canadians, have resulted in a cozy and protected market that foreign firms cannot enter. Canada's three providers have, therefore, not had to compete against each other on price, he said.

    "It's an oligopoly ? in an oligopolistic structure, by definition, nobody is engaging in a price w a r," he said. "Nobody wins in a price war."

    Growing profits at cellphone providers and evidence of high rates have attracted the government's attention.

    ---------

    Wireless

    Minister of Industry Maxime Bernier is seen as favouring a new fourth carrier, which he could help foster through an upcoming auction of wireless spectrum. Industry critics have suggested that spectrum — or the airwaves cellphones run over — should be reserved for new entrants such as Canada's cable companies, and that ownership restrictions should be removed.

    Mr. Bernier has not officially taken a position on whether the cellphone industry needs more competition, a spokeswoman said yesterday, but a discussion process on the rules of the upcoming auction is "about to be launched."

    The cellphone providers and the industry's lobby group, the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, maintain the market is competitive. The CWTA in October released a report that found prices in Canada compared favourably with other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

    The Moody's report, however, found the industry's key measure of average revenue per user (ARPU)--or the average amount of a subscriber's bill — climbed 6% in 2006 to $56. That was an acceleration over 2004 and 2005, when ARPU grew only 4%. In both cases the trend contradicts what is happening in the United States, where ARPU is contracting, Mr. Kirk wrote. ARPU is also declining in many developed countries.

    Moody's noted that data usage, or the non-voice services on mobile devices, will rise to contribute 10% of ARPU in 2007, which is still below the low-teens percentage for U.S. carriers.

    "While Canadian ARPU is high by North American standards, we expect continued pricing discipline amongst the three operators to produce modest ARPU growth again in 2007," he wrote.

    Mr. Kirk also doesn't expect number portability, which will allow subscribers to take their phone number with them when they change providers, to have much of an effect on competition when it comes into effect on March 14. Canadian cellphone providers have sewn up most customers into long-term service contracts, so not many are expected to switch.

    "That is certainly going to mute the effect," he said.
     
  20. cooler

    cooler Regular Member

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    forget iphone, blackberry, telus, t-mobile, at&t, verizon, or what have u,
    the sleeping giant google is working on their masterplan.
    here is an appetizer.

    Google's Wireless Plan Underscores Threat to Telecom
    By Jesse Drucker, Kevin J.
    Delaney and Peter Grant Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
    Internet companies are making an aggressive and unprecedented push into services traditionally offered by phone and cable companies -- threatening to upend the business of transmitting voice and data.

    Google Inc. unveiled the latest such effort Friday with a proposal to provide free, wireless high-speed Internet access in the city of San Francisco. The service would allow users to bypass fee-based connections of cable and local phone companies in favor of wireless links.

    Users could log on through computers and email, surf the Web, download music or do anything else they can do with a traditional Internet connection -- including, ...

    (the rest is paid subscription :D)
     

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