Topics: Functions, Linear functions
An International Comparison of Cell Phone Plans and Prices
The study was completed by New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative (OTI) on the costs and types of cell phone packages available to consumers around the world. The results of the study provide some insight into business models in several key countries. For example, in some countries, contract plans (postpaid) are more prevalent than prepaid plans (pay-as-you go phones). The comparison was done between prominent cell phone carriers in 11 countries.
Voice Service
Key Findings: Across postpaid and prepaid voice plans, Canada, U.S., U.K. and Japan mostly fall in the high to middle price tiers while India, Hong Kong and Sweden fall in the low price tier.
1) Let x be the number of minutes. Find monthly cost ($) as a function in terms of x (number of minutes) for the postpaid plan in Denmark. What is the cost if 180 minutes are used in one month? What is the domain of this function (hint: consider monthly limit on minutes)?
2) Find monthly cost ($) as a function in terms of x (number of minutes) for the postpaid plan in India. What is the cost if 180 minutes are used in one month?
3) Find monthly cost ($) as a function in terms of x (number of minutes) for the postpaid plan in U.K. What is the domain of this function? Can 180 minutes be used under this plan?
4) According to this study, which 3 countries have the cheapest postpaid plan (consider $/min)?
5) Which 3 countries have most expensive plan?
Text Service
Key Findings: U.S. is in the highest price tier in the postpaid and prepaid text plans sharing space with U.K., Canada and Denmark while Sweden, India and Japan fall in the lowest price tier.
1) Calculate the cost per text in the postpaid plan in Sweden. How many times is the cost per text in U.K. is more expensive than cost per text in Sweden?
2) Which countries have no preset monthly limits on texts?
3) Which 2 countries have the cheapest unlimited plan (cost per text)? Which 2 countries have most expensive unlimited plan?
Minimum Cost of a Complete Cell Phone Package
To get a holistic picture of the cost of a cell phone service, it is necessary to look at the total cost of all three services: voice, text and data. We will arrive at the final cost to the consumer by looking at the sum of the minimum monthly cost of each of the best available postpaid voice, text and data plans.
How does the overall package (including voice, text and data) in U.S. compare to other countries in this study?
Read the rest of the article (follow the link above). How does your conclusion compare to the conclusion reached in the article?
Bonus: If Pay-as-you-go voice service plan in Canada costs 0.4 CAD per minute (Canadian dollars) and in Denmark a similar service costs 0.99 DKK per minute (Danish krone). How many times is the service in Canada more expensive than in Denmark? Hint: you may need to look up current currency conversion rates for Canada and Denmark.
If Pay-as-you-go voice service plan in Finland costs € 0.08 per min and in Hong Kong a similar service costs 0.15 HKD per minute (Hong Kong dollars). How many times is the service in Finlandmore expensive than in Hong Kong?
Julia Nudel, Valencia College (2014), College Algebra