Walled Gardens Got To Go

Ukraine. What associations does one get upon hearing of this country? An impoverished, post-soviet state? Perhaps, one young and proud country that recently went through a democratic revolution? Depends on who you ask, but it's certain that noone thinks of it as a leader in mobile services. Guess what - it *IS* and the quality/price ratio of the communications sector puts Canada to shame.

 First, some economic background. Yes, Ukraine is a poor country (financially, not spiritually) where gap between the rich and the poor is staggering. The average pension is 100 dollars, and a monthly income of 300-400$ is considered good. Cost of living matches these numbers, yet pretty much everyone is able to afford a mobile phone. Here's a brief list of things Ukrainians enjoy:

•  Free incoming calls - it's the law. This is so basic to everyone here, people think I'm joking when I mention it's not the case in Canada. This encourages communication as phone users are never afraid to take a call. One of the newer carriers even pays its customers for every minute of incoming calls.
• Prepaid dominates contracts = better cost control. The majority of the population here is not living, but surviving (sadly) and the thought of contractual obligation is alien to them. Prepaid services dominate the market and it's a good thing - customers always know about their maximum obligation and are not afraid to try out new services.
• GSM is the only standard - switching carriers is a matter of getting another SIM card. Mobile Carriers invest heavily into advertising and promotions. This holiday season, it's not uncommon to see new SIM cards available for 2-5CAD, with a bonus to boot. No carrier feels safe behind a wall of contracts - the result is better services.

  

• Flat fees for SMS, MMS and international calls. Some of the more recent promotions include flat fee international calls (20 cents a minute anywhere) . Messaging (also anywhere in the world) is universally cheap - 2 to 5 cents a message.
• Cheap mobile internet. Unlimited GPRS/EDGE internet for one day costs one dollar, 1 GB for 1 month costs 7$. Without subscription, it's 250KB for a dollar.
• Free calls inside the network. This is one of the most recent promotions and students are loving it (available with most carriers).
• No phone subsidies. This is a good thing - it leads to take-no-prisoners warfare in the lower and middle price segments of the handset market. Bluetooth, FM-radio and MP3 players are something one expects to have in their phone (albeit it might not be super-slim and fashionable).

One might ask, well how do they make money then? It's a mystery to me as well, but it's certainly expensive to make calls FROM the phone itself. Students try to avoid it by calling the number and hanging up rightaway (yeah, caller-ID is free as well) to get a free incoming call from the person they're trying to reach.

 To sum up, I've been using my phone heavily (especially internet) for the past two weeks and I only spent 10 CAD. This would be unthinkable in Canada. Fido, Telus, Bell and the rest of them should be ashamed of the contract model they are abusing - their arrogance (like Fido's recent hike in data rates) is only going to hurt Canada in the long run.