Corruption is responsible for 80 percent of your cell phone bill

This is actually pretty straightforward. You're being robbed; here's how. So let's call this a Quick Hits.

Per Matt Stoller writing at the Republic Report (my emphasis and paragraphing):

Last year, a new company called Lightsquared promised an innovative business model that would dramatically lower cell phone costs and improve the quality of service, threatening the incumbent phone operators like AT&T and Verizon. Lightsquared used a new technology involving satellites and spectrum, and was a textbook example of how markets can benefit the public through competition.

The phone industry swung into motion, not by offering better products and services, but by going to Washington to ensure that its new competitor could be killed by its political friends.

And sure enough, through three Congressmen that AT&T and Verizon had funded (Fred Upton (R-MI), Greg Walden (R-OR), and Cliff Stearns (R-FL)), Congress began demanding an investigation into this new company. Pretty soon, the Federal Communications Commission got into the game, revoking a critical waiver that had allowed it to proceed with its business plan.

Ignore the LightSquared part of the story for a moment (our LightSquared story is here, by the way).

This is about how your phone bills are five times what people pay in much of the rest of the world for the same quality of service:

Americans continue to have a small number of expensive, poor quality cell phone providers. And how much does this cost you?

Take your phone bill, and cut it by 80%. That’s how much you should be paying.

You see, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, people in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Finland pay on average less than $130 a year for cell phone service. Americans pay $635.85 a year.

That $500 a year difference, from most consumers with a cell phone, goes straight to AT&T and Verizon (and to a much lesser extent Sprint and T-Mobile). It’s the cost of corruption.

It’s also, from the perspective of these companies, the return on their campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures. Every penny they spend in DC and in state capitols ensures that you pay high bills, to them.

It's cheaper to buy politicians than to spend on service and equipment. As near as I can tell the ROI on buying Congress is about 100:1.

On the other hand, be comforted. It's nothing personal — it's just about the money.

[Update: Replaced a phrase lost in editing.]

GP

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