Some points on the costs of staying connected

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Two interesting pieces on the costs paid by mobile users, The first is the “termination fee” paid between UK networks. Ofcom have announced plans to drop this to 0.5p by 2015 but Westminster MP Mark Lazarowicz is pushing to have this lower rate in place in a shorter time frame. Meanwhile the technological marvel of in-flight WiFi is being used by around 10% of passengers where it is available (mostly on US internal flights).

All of these little additions go into the total cost of ownership (an issue we talked about on Friday thanks to Jack Schofield’s Trusted Review editorial), it’s not just about the cost of the handset, it’s the ongoing costs associated with the cost of calls and data over the network, additional connectivity fees, and of course subscriptions and applications that add up.

In the last decade, I might have gone through numerous hardware choices, monthly plans and pay as you go SIM cards. But for all the offers, upgrades and improvements over the years, my monthly bill is still roughly the same as to when I signed up for my Nokia 5.1 (a branded 2110 on the Orange network) back in the 20th century. Which I find curious.