So this was written in 2009, in terms of deals. You can get better deals in the US, in Canada, not so much. We continue to whither under the Monopolies of Bell, Telus, and Rogers. Many people have removed their home phones and only have a wireless phone now.
$69.99 For Everything?
Sprint Telecom in the U.S. has just announced a very intriguing package for their Cell Phone subscribers, which is $69.99 for:
- Unlimited long distance calling in the continental US
- Unlimited text’ing
- Unlimited data usage with your mobile device
So this effectively means you can merge your:
- Home Phone
- Cell Phone
- Internet Connection
Into one bill that allegedly only costs $69 a month? Holy cow! Now I have no doubt that “Unlimited” may very well have it’s limits, but it does show what competition does to a marketplace.
Currently in the U.S. there are Four National Carriers (according to Barron’s) AT&T, Sprint Nextel, Verizon and T-Mobile. There are many more regional pay per use carriers and this number of competitors means that that with slowing Cell Phone growth (single digit growth soon to be almost zero), the only way to get “new” customers is by Cut Throat (if not suicidal) pricing practices. All of these competitors will be sacrificing profits for simple market share (hoping that once their competitors die off they will be able to make their money then).
In Canada, there is nowhere near this level of competition and we pay some of the highest prices in the world for Wireless access (not sure about home phone, but I suspect we are not very cheap either).
Competition is never a bad thing, unless you are a shareholder in one of the companies competing (especially if you choose the losing company in the competition).
How much do you pay for your Internet + Cell Phone + Home Phone ? I pay over $200, closer to $300 really, which really is too much.
I just switched to an iPhone three bills ago and I’ve been doing a lot of travelling. My plan is pretty cheap, but for the past three months I’ve paid $600 (for when I upgraded to the iPhone), $300 (lots of long distance and texting to the US), and this month $200 (more long distance, texting to the US and a trip to NYC (roaming rates in the US are just insane)).
I need to cut down on my long distance & texting. I’m making an effort! I think I can get it down to about $100 per month for iPhone & highspeed internet. I don’t need cable – all the TV shows I watch can be downloaded or watched for free online.
$70 is a deal, but not a great one. For home phone and internet, I pay $70/month. Two cell phones average $15/month each for a total of about $100. As the phones are pay-per-use, this varies a bit. Merging cell phone and home phone is impractical when sharing an apartment, since the front door needs to call whoever is home.
When we move to a house the land phone will be history, but I imagine that speed will be a factor in keeping a wired internet connection, since internet has replaced a cable bill.
Land line, LD package, ADSL, cellphone $97/mo
DAvid