The high price of a typical mobile subscription in North America has limited the usage of mobile data services. As of 2019, five countries in Europe exceeded the average usage of 10GB/month per mobile subscription (with seven forecast to do so in 2020), while both Canada and the United States, with some of the highest mobile ARPUs in the world, lagged behind with 2.5GB/month and 6.4GB/month respectively.

However, when the ARPUs are wealth-adjusted, by dividing them by each country’s GDP per capita, the picture looks somewhat different. From this perspective, Western European mobile prices are relatively cheaper than their counterparts in Central and Eastern Europe, and while US and Canadian mobile pricing falls in line with CEE countries, we see a significant gap opening up between the United States and Canada.

Strict regulations and a relative lack of competition have led to Canadian consumers paying some of the largest fees relative to their income, while also receiving low data allowances. In contrast, the greater competition in the US thanks to T-Mobile’s disruptive pricing and “un-carrier” movement has shifted the market in recent years. But while US operators have been giving consumers a little more for their mobile buck, they are still more expensive than their Western European counterparts.