Believe it or not, Oslo (the most expensive city in the world) has much better and less expensive mobile phone plans than anything I've found from a major carrier in the US. To start with, you don't pay for air time on calls you receive. Another nice thing is that you pay based on what you use, not on some preset minute allotment. I'll get back to that in a bit.
When we were in Oslo, we were using a prepaid plan, though subscription plans were available. I never used the subscription plans, but I believe you paid a set amount for the line, then any usage fees based on a set rate. Your account might feature different services, like web browsing, which would change the set montly fee. Norwegians, feel free to correct me. With the prepaid plans, you paid to have the number set up and then purchased minutes whenever you need them. Rebekah and I typically went through around 150 minutes each every two months.
In the US, you typically pay a monthly subscription fee for a set number of minutes, then pay a certain amount per minute if you exceed your allotted amount. Normally, you won't pay for calls between callers using the same provider, though you do pay for text messages (both sending and receiving). You'll also use up your minutes on calls you receive. The base number of minutes on most family plans seems to be 700. So, Rebekah and I are basically paying for 400 minutes a month that we don't want. And since we text message each other more than call, we end up paying for usage anyway.
If that weren't bad enough, we barely get service at the house where we spend 90% of our time. I miss four out of five calls I receive. When I do get a call, I can barely understand the person because the reception is so bad. In Norway, I could be in the middle of a forest and have full reception. It's pathetic.
The phones have improved since I first got a mobile phone in 1998, but not much else has changed. It's time to get with the rest of the planet, USA.
