I’m aware studies comparing cell phone charges generally have to be taken with a grain of salt (especially cross-country studies like the following one), but this one coming from the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is pretty interesting.
It’s not really a “world” ranking, but the ministry compared [JP, PDF] cell phone charges in seven major cities in Europe, Asia and the US. The result in a nutshell: New Yorkers are pretty lucky, Parisians aren’t.
Cell phone charges in Paris were the highest in in fiscal 2008 (at the end of March 2009), with one minute costing $0.33. New York is on the other end of the spectrum with just $0.11. Here is the complete breakdown:
1. Paris: $0.33 per minute
2. Tokyo: $0.28
3. Düsseldorf (Germany): $0.23
4. London: $0.17
5. Seoul: $0.13
6. Stockholm: $0.13
7. New York: $0.11
The ministry compared the cheapest rate plans of those cell phone carriers in the seven cities that have the largest market share.
Picture credit: Bling Ring
I am assuming london is $0.17 not $01.7?
How much are they paying in Mumbai or Shanghai for that matter?
Am an Indian staying in New York… This isn’t true.. The cellular charges are far more costlier than other parts of the world for instance India.
In India, we are charged only Rs 0.50 INR per minute after the monthly free minutes which is around $ 0.01 USD. (1 Cent). This is without any contract, no hidden charges or anything.
Being said that, it doesnot mean that the infrastructure and service over there is bad. Just to quote an example, here in NY we donot get service in subways and a third party company has come forward to implement cellular service at all the subway stations of NY by 2015, but thatz not the case in india, the cellular service is already available in subway stations and u get cellular service everywhere even in some remote forests.
Vienna, Austria: Less than $0.06 (4 euro cent per minute, no contract, no catch)
http://www.bob.at/
Some other countries maybe much more cheap.