LOL - The funny thing is this is the stuff telcos love to use in defending their price hikes, or their 20 cent text messages: "It's cheaper than it was before..."

Exactly! -gs

New Headline -

Your cellphone bill has gone up 25% in 12 years -- are you happy now?

The fact that we've made no progress in the last 14 years is troubling. Of course prices are going to come down as more people join the early adopters but you'd think that the economies of scale would kick in eventually with the continued growth. I's love to see a chart showing the number of subscribers each year, I think that would bring some contest to this chart...

"the bunion" HA!

No I'm not happy. Verizon is now requiring all but the most basic phones to carry a data plan (which of course is in addition to a text/pix messaging plan). So when (if) I renew my daughter's contract on my family plan, my cost for her line will almost double.

Hey Carriers: IT'S ALL DATA! Stop making me pay separately for this or that or the other thing.

I've been happy w/Verizon for many years, but its stupid, greedy moves like this that have me seriously considering a switch (or going prepay) when my contract expires.

I agree with Bill. It is getting ridiculous what they are charging for a "basic phone" (which is all I want). They have plenty of "deals" on the latest blackberry or iphone or whatever, but you then need to bump your monthly bill by $30.

My (barely a year old) phone recently died (through my own fault), but when I tried to get a replacement, I was 6 months away from my "upgrade", so they wanted me to pay cloase to $300 dollars for a comparable replacement.

I instead went and bought a cheap-o Go phone to get me through, but even that cost me $75, and the phone is so cheaply made, i'll be lucky to get more than a couple months out of it.

I recently switched our three phones from Verizon to TMobile, and I am very happy with the pricing and service.

Thankfully, Walmart has entered the market with its Straight Talk Plan. We knocked off $80/month and now have a higher level of service (unlimited data and text on wife's plan). Where can I donate a few thousand unused AT&T "rollover minutes"?

@MistaT, I switched to Straight Talk too (from Sprint) and get a much better coverage and call quality - at half the price!
Concerning the chart, average monthly bill is probably for 400 minute contract plans that cost $39.99 (plus hidden charges) with all the major carriers.
Straight Talk offers 1000 minutes, 1000 texts and 30mb of data for 30 bucks or unlimited everything for $45! No hidden charges and NO contract.
So even if the monthly cost is roughly the same, you can get so much more for the same amount if you go prepaid.

I live in Belarus, it's a country near Russia. My average monthly bill is 5-7$. But 10 years ago it was tenfold more expensive.