Where are the Most Expensive Mobile Data Plans? Canada!
Crazy huge overage fees have many people worried, and none more so than mobile users in Canada. Canadian data carriers make more revenue from it's customer's data plans than any other country.
This is all detailed in a report by telecom research firm tefficient, which released it's 14th analysis of data usage across 32 countries.
The report states:
"The most expensive mobile data countries are Canada, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic and the Netherlands and — as a consequence — mobile users in these countries are using very little mobile data."
Total mobile service revenue per Gbyte [EUR]
Charging Canadians more for data use, means Canadians have limited their consumption of data. They want to avoid getting hit with nasty rates, so they just avoid using. This isn't a good business model for getting people to actually use a service... know what I mean?
Mobile data traffic – for reporting operators
China is #1, with 840 million mobile subscriptions, leading the world in mobile petabytes carried. On average, people use only 0.5 GB per SIM per month, but overall China is the largest data carrier in the world. The US's Verizon comes in at #2, with South Korea's SK Telecom at #3.
In Finland, where half of users have unlimited data plans, which are some of the least expensive, has the highest average data usage. One operator, DNA, has the highest average usage per user in the world, at 9.9GB per month.
OpenMedia, an advocacy group, confirmed the study's findings with Katy Anderson saying:
"Once you lift those data caps we see that people use the internet in such creative and neat ways, and they're not self-censoring themselves."
More Canadian mobile data competition is required to help drive down the prices.
The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) confirms such a conclusion, with vice-president of communications Marc Choma saying:
"What we find when looking at the available data is that usage is more directly correlated to network quality."
Canadian carriers need to wake up if they want to actually make mobile data usage something people use more.
[Images]
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/mobile-data-cost-usage-1.3911053
http://idealog.co.nz/tech/2011/10/mobile-competition-2-billion-boost-economy-report
http://tefficient.com/unlimited-pushes-data-usage-to-new-heights/
[Sources]
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/mobile-data-cost-usage-1.3911053
http://tefficient.com/unlimited-pushes-data-usage-to-new-heights/
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/publications/reports/compar/compar2016.htm#6
Yes, we pay through the nose for so many things here in Canada. I guess it's the price we pay for the privilege of being the Queen's loyal subjects... (serious sarcasm intended). If the past is any indication, nothing will change unless I vote with my feet...
I use pre-pay since we work from home. When we go out I buy 24 hours of data 150 mb for $.99. I typically spend about $10 a month. My only cost is the phone itself. One of the things I love about Panama!
Awesome, thats great! I need to stop my cellphone (I live in Canada, LOL)... I never even use it... wtf. LOL
The carriers are wide awake, making money hand over fist, while the CRTC allows them to do so.
Yup, been going on for years...
nice post, thanks you
http://whiteboard-review.com/wp-site-guardian-2017-review/
Unlimited LTE plan here for $50/mo. I never use it because I have fibre at home, but the last time I did I burned over 300GB of data in a week :)
Here unlimited means unlimited.
Haha lucky you!
canada needs more competition in their cell market, their data company cartel certainly isn't helping anyone by the looks of those prices :/
@krnel , I have never met you - I am sure you are a nice guy and all that.
Do you really think that a post about mobile telephone coverage validates 300 votes two days after Christmas, thereby keeping the SP in the hands of the mean and Scrooge-like elite?
Write something with heart and soul and we might let you get away with the mind-boggling rort!
It is funny what you accuse mobile telephone carriers of - ever considered the irony of it all?
The word hypocrisy comes from the Greek ὑυπόκρισις (hypokrisis), which means "jealous", "play-acting", "acting out", "coward"