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We may regularly be up in arms whenever something starts costing an extra pound or two, but when compared against the major economies of Europe and the US, we actually pay the least per month when it comes to sorting out our phone, TV and internet needs.
The data comes from an Ofcom report into our TV and media habits, which found that, on average, an example family of two adults and two teenage children here in the UK pay £146 a month for fixed line, internet, TV and mobile connections. That’s less than the US pays (£314), less that Italy (£247) and less than France (£178). [Ofcom]
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Yep, all my US and Canadian friends moan about it!
Ok , but have they adjusted it to take into account the standard of living in other countries. Expressing it as a percentage of average monthly disposable income would be more honest and accurate.
Well said; the other countries listed will generally have a higher proportion of disposable income as our housing and transport costs are so much higher.
I’d rather live in the States and (excluding New York and California) pay around £100K-£150K for a property that would be comparable here to something at least double that. Then I’ve got more money left to pay for internet et al.
which only makes our cheap prices here so much more remarkable as the companies offering the services also have to deal with higher land and fuel prices for their UK operations than their overseas neighbours.
but the customer base is in a much more concentrated area in this country. Louisiana or Alabama are about the same size as the UK so customer concentration must have a valid aspect.
Yes, it’s like saying “Teenagers eat less than people in their 60s.” and using Eric Pickles as the example.
I am really not looking forward to my phone bill when I get back to NZ.. No more unlimited internet! Nooooo!! Three come back to me!
They have internet in Middle Earth?
A little bit. But we only have one Cell Tower..
..And it has a big glowing eye at the top of it
I don’t really care what other countries pay. You’d have to be quite daft to be happy about increases in charges for anything especially at a time when inflation outstrips pay increases for most.
I agree with this.
Average bill does not indicate much unless average salary is taken into account. Compare this to some of the countries in Asia where the average TV, Broadband and Mobile bill is <£50. It's all relative to how much is being earned on average in a country.
Plus, the US STILL doesn’t do free phones on contract, and have more expensive contracts than us. What’s that all about?
They probably get way better speeds that we do in the UK anyway
Means nothing without comparing the content available. They might pay twice as much, but I bet they also have double the content available.
Even £146 a month is a crazy amount to spend each month. My TV bill is zero because I just use freeview, phone line costs less than £11 a month (BT Line rental saver), broadband is less than £9 a month (O2 ADSL broadband), and our 4 mobile contracts effectively cost zero (all are on a 100% cashback redemption offer). So my monthly spend on those is less than £20 a month. Having said that, I’m looking to upgrade to fibre broadband which’ll bring the broadband cost to around £20 to £30 a month. Also, 100% mobile cashback deals seemed to longer be around so we’ll probably cut our 4 mobile lines down to 2 but with the best cashback deal, we’ll still spend a paltry £7 a month per month per mobile.
We’ve got something similar. Just cancelled Sky a few months back and we’re now just relying on freeview plus our internet and phone package (£23 a month) plus Netflix (£6) and our mobile bills (around £30) with a little “grey” downloading.
That may be so, but whats the average wage in the other countries and the cost of living? How doe the figures then compare?