From our front-page news:
If there's one bill I begrudgingly pay each month, it's the cell phone bill. The telecom companies boast about their great value on TV commercials, magazine ads and billboards, but I think most of us can see through the bull... cell phone plans are complete and utter ripoffs. But just how much of a ripoff are they? Well according to one independent study, the true cost may be as high as $3/minute. No joke.
The results are skewed thanks to those who have high-value plans but don't use their phone often, but the fact remains... we all pay out the rear for phone plans, and chances are good that few of us actually get our money's worth. I thought about this just the other day, when I received my $60 cell phone bill and noticed that I only talked on it for all of 2 hours during the entire month, and sent an received a total of 15 text messages. Ouch.
It's estimated from the report that the average consumer pays between $0.50 - $1 per minute, which is helped by the fact that there are numerous extra fees on your bill each month (such as the required "service" fee). The lesson to learn from this is that we all get ripped off, whether you feel like you are or not. If you enjoy calling your money your own, it's important to make sure your plan isn't too large for your needs. Time for me to go back to the drawing board and figure out the same...
That $3-per-minute figure is skewed by the relatively small percentage of people who pay for a lot of minutes but barely use any. But even when those folk are taken out of the mix, most wireless customers still pay between 50 cents and $1 per minute, the study found. Shames said this wasn't a problem just for San Diego residents. He said the findings of the report were representative of cellphone use and bills nationwide.
Source: Los Angeles Times
The results are skewed thanks to those who have high-value plans but don't use their phone often, but the fact remains... we all pay out the rear for phone plans, and chances are good that few of us actually get our money's worth. I thought about this just the other day, when I received my $60 cell phone bill and noticed that I only talked on it for all of 2 hours during the entire month, and sent an received a total of 15 text messages. Ouch.
It's estimated from the report that the average consumer pays between $0.50 - $1 per minute, which is helped by the fact that there are numerous extra fees on your bill each month (such as the required "service" fee). The lesson to learn from this is that we all get ripped off, whether you feel like you are or not. If you enjoy calling your money your own, it's important to make sure your plan isn't too large for your needs. Time for me to go back to the drawing board and figure out the same...
That $3-per-minute figure is skewed by the relatively small percentage of people who pay for a lot of minutes but barely use any. But even when those folk are taken out of the mix, most wireless customers still pay between 50 cents and $1 per minute, the study found. Shames said this wasn't a problem just for San Diego residents. He said the findings of the report were representative of cellphone use and bills nationwide.
Source: Los Angeles Times
