Britain is the second-cheapest country to run a mobile phone, according to new research.
A report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) collected the prices of three different plans from 2012 across 12 countries.
News.com.au says these were 100 calls with 500MB of data, 300 calls with 1GB data and 900 calls with 2GB data. All plans included the handset and all worked off the post-paid model, rather than the pre-paid, but did not include the cost per month to send SMS. However, in the UK at least, most providers will package unlimited text messages in with their more expensive plans.
The researchers calculated the average price of a plan between two different network providers in each category, going on to convert the total amount into US dollars.
The results show Australia way out ahead in all three plans, with the UK finishing second in two categories – the 100 calls and 500 MB data as well as the 300 calls and 1GB data. France and the US also scored highly in the standings, while Mexico was identified as the most expensive country to own a mobile phone.
According to guardian.co.uk, the study also highlighted that it was cheaper to by a phone independently and sign up to a plan rather than acquiring the handset through the network provider.
