Mobile phone calls most expensive in in Canada, Spain, and the US, says OECD report

Yesterday the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) released their 2009 OECD Communications Outlook and declared that Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden have the lowest prices for mobile phone calls among OECD countries. Not surprisingly, the highest rates were found in Canada along with Spain and the United States.

In response, Washington, DC based advocacy organization CTIA-The Wireless Association issued a press release stating that US consumers enjoy the lowest per minute rates of all of the OECD countries and that the international comparison report is built on flawed assumptions.

Since the average U.S. calling profile is nearly three times greater than the OECD’s “high usage” basket (and, in fact, the average U.S. calling profile is nearly six times greater than the OECD’s “average” usage basket), it is no surprise that most other sources show the price per-call (or price per-MOU) in the United States is the lowest among the OECD countries. 

Not surprisingly, the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association has not issued a press release to address the findings.

According to the OECD report, for a “low-use” basket (defined as including 360 minutes of voice calls, 396 text messages and eight video messages per year), Canada ranked 20th most expensive out of 30 countries last year. For “medium-use” (780 voice minutes per year) Canada ranked 28th out of 30. And for “high-use” (1,680 voice minutes per year) the country ranked 19th.