… Cell phone users in the U.S., Spain, and Canada pay more for mobile phone service than cell phone users in other parts of the world, according to a survey published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The OECD surveyed mobile carriers in its 30 member countries. The report showed on average how much consumers spend over the course of a year.
For a consumer subscribing to a medium-use package that provides about 780 voice minutes, 600 short text messages, and eight multimedia messages, the survey found that the monthly price of service ranged from $11 a month for service in the Netherlands to $53 a month for service in the U.S. as of August 2008.
On a yearly basis, American cell phone users are spending about $635.85 on cell phone service. Spanish cell phone users pay about $508.26 for the year. And Canadian cell phone subscribers pay about $500.63. By contrast people in the Netherlands and Finland pay the lowest amount for cell phone service, only $131.44 per year. And cell phone users in Sweden only pay $137.94 per year.
Rick McCharles 
I was in Europe for a year and a half a few years back. I bought a phone in Amsterdam and in each country we moved to, I bought a new sim card and did the pay as you go thing. It was brilliant. Easy to recharge, inexpensive and user friendly. Here in Canada and the US it is a nightmare: locked phones, $ that expire in 30 days if unused, lengthy contracts, unnecessary charges for text messages, not to mention the high cost. Spain must have changed since then as I thought it was fine when there in 02-03.