I read once that we pay the highest rates for mobile data (or at least I think I did) in the world but I don’t recall reading why. Maybe it had something to do with near-monopolies or infrastructure?
Are there any changes coming that may change this?
Usually this happens because people are willing to pay what they are being charged. And they are being charged maximum they are willing to pay, because of monopoly.
Most people think of how much it costs to provide a given service and compare things based on that. In reality companies charge how much the customer is willing to pay. If there is a competition the customer generally won’t pay more than what the competitor will charge. That’s why it is so sweet to have monopoly in the market.
With mobile phones being a necessity of modern life, the monopoly can charge even more than what the market will bear and people will warp the rest of their spending in order to afford it.