C. Enrique Ortiz offers a look at mobile rates in the US. His conclusion:
We are talking of a minimum of $70, before tax, per month, to have a cellphone with basic voice service, that can be used to surf the web (unlimited), and that can send and receive 1000 text messages — that doesn’t include MMS, ringtones or applications.
When I ask people how much extra they are willing to pay a month for extra services for their cellphones, the typical answer is around $20. This is why voice, followed by text messaging are the top two usages of cellphones. This is why data plans and thus access to the web comes next, but far behind voice and text messaging. And this is the same reason why mass adoption of MMS won’t happen any time soon — it is too expensive. Consumption of individual items, such as ringtones and applications and songs, will continue to happen, as such consumption is occasional.
