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Cellular service clearly can be delivered more cheaply in poor countries. Telenor for example is Noweigian (very wealthy country) but offers service at lower pr

Cellular service clearly can be delivered more cheaply in poor countries. Telenor for example is Noweigian (very wealthy country) but offers service at lower prices in Myanmar. One reason is labor costs. Imagine how much it costs to build and maintain one tower in Norway with its high standard of living for everyone vs in Myanmar where people will work for much less, and with lower safety standards. And obviously providers will charge more if they can, less if they have to.

MAGZine 6y ago
Can you point to a source that says labour costs are the reason for high Telco prices? The ongoing maintainence of a tower seems like it would be fractional to operational cost.
- jzwinck 6y ago
  Of course towers are a fraction of operating expenses. It was just an example of one piece of the puzzle. All labor costs in Myanmar are far lower, from marketing to lawyers to retail store staff. And as I said, there are other reasons such as consumer surplus (rich people can pay more, so they do).
jeppesen-io 6y ago
And cost of land and permitting
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
skylanh 6y ago
As an extension to this comment, other costs that could impact the delivery price of 1GB of total usage: - speed - overall saturation of tower (# users per tower) - population density (full coverage of an area may be difficult) - technology; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_mobile_phone_standards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_mobile_phone_sta... which could affect federal regulatory licensing costs, technology licensing and acquisition costs and competitiveness of market to provide technology, tower density, total user capacity This is my laymen's interpretation. For instance, to blanket the US (9.834 million km² and 36 people per Km2) in LTE would be a significantly harder challenge then blanketing Myanmar (676,575 km² and 83 people per Km2) or even Norway (385,203 km² and 15 people per Km2). Just look at the stats for Myanmar, 86 people per Km2, and I might be able to get most of them within 300-500k km2. My subscriber base is excellent!
deleted 6y ago
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Scoundreller 6y ago
> And obviously providers will charge more if they can, less if they have to. When prices are based on ability-to-pay rather than cost of provision, then that means there's a competition problem. While Norway may have more expensive labour, I'm sure they farm out as much as they can offshore. I wonder if Ericsson or Nokia charge lower prices for the same equipment in poorer countries.

MAGZine 6y ago

Can you point to a source that says labour costs are the reason for high Telco prices? The ongoing maintainence of a tower seems like it would be fractional to operational cost.

jzwinck 6y ago
Of course towers are a fraction of operating expenses. It was just an example of one piece of the puzzle. All labor costs in Myanmar are far lower, from marketing to lawyers to retail store staff. And as I said, there are other reasons such as consumer surplus (rich people can pay more, so they do).

jeppesen-io 6y ago

And cost of land and permitting

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

skylanh 6y ago

As an extension to this comment, other costs that could impact the delivery price of 1GB of total usage: - speed - overall saturation of tower (# users per tower) - population density (full coverage of an area may be difficult) - technology; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_mobile_phone_standards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_mobile_phone_sta... which could affect federal regulatory licensing costs, technology licensing and acquisition costs and competitiveness of market to provide technology, tower density, total user capacity This is my laymen's interpretation. For instance, to blanket the US (9.834 million km² and 36 people per Km2) in LTE would be a significantly harder challenge then blanketing Myanmar (676,575 km² and 83 people per Km2) or even Norway (385,203 km² and 15 people per Km2). Just look at the stats for Myanmar, 86 people per Km2, and I might be able to get most of them within 300-500k km2. My subscriber base is excellent!

deleted 6y ago

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Scoundreller 6y ago

> And obviously providers will charge more if they can, less if they have to. When prices are based on ability-to-pay rather than cost of provision, then that means there's a competition problem. While Norway may have more expensive labour, I'm sure they farm out as much as they can offshore. I wonder if Ericsson or Nokia charge lower prices for the same equipment in poorer countries.