Telecoms pricing

Ofcom (the UK media and telecoms regulator) compiles a chart like this every year, showing pricing for a range of different user case baskets to get access to telecoms and media services around the world. Somewhat conveniently, it shows the UK as cheapest (mainly due to the slightly over-competitive mobile market), but it is also interesting to see how expensive the US market tends to come out in these sorts of comparisons.

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Pulling out UK broadband pricing makes a depressing picture for most US broadband subscribers.

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This is not, of course, the whole picture, since those higher prices tend to deliver more (more voice minutes, more channels). None the less, it does illustrate the cumulative impact on consumers of two decade's wrong-headed thinking by the FCC.

Sadly, most of the advocates for a change in methodology by the FCC (of whom Tim Wu is only the latest) are in fact, without realising it, arguing for a continuation of precisely the same approaches that created this situation. 

Full PDF here.

Benedict Evans