A note on Cell phones...

For those of you who have travelled around and used cell phones abroad, you know that almost everywhere around the world cell phones work differently than in North America.

Here and in India anyway, you can switch cell companies by picking up a new sim card and keeping your phone. The phones and cell network operate separately and everything is much cheaper. The rates are really cheap and the deals that companies offer are increadibly cheap by NA standards. Here in the Philippines, you can get a deal for unlimited text and calls for 400 Pesos a month (around $10 CAD)...only catch is that you can only contact people on the same network. The deals are so cheap that a lot of people carry more than one phone, one for each network.

I'm getting the impression that people in NA are getting ripped off with the cell phones. We should be able to keep the same phones, but switch networks by getting new sim cards. In theory anyway, cell phones should be cheaper than land lines because the infrastructure is much easier and cheaper to set up. I agree that taxes and overhead costs are higher in NA so that the cell costs should be higher, but I'm not convinced that it should be as high as it is.

That's my 2 cents anyway...