A reader sent me some information about mobile phone charges in Indonesia, which is the forth biggest country in terms of population, behind the U.S., India, and China. Quoting from my piece on phoneboy.com:

Each outbound minute of calling to a landline costs Rp. 531/minute for the three carriers, calling to a mobile on the same provider costs Rp. 540-813, depending on carrier, and calling a mobile on another operator costs Rp 540-975, depending on carrier. SMS (text messaging) costs Rp. 250-300 within Indonesia, Rp. 500 to locations outside Indonesia. The monthly access fee? Rp. 350, unless you spend a certain amount on your bill.

To put this in American pesos dollars, a minute of calling to a landline costs less than $0.06 a minute, a minute of mobile calling costs less than $0.09, SMS costs $0.03 within Indonesia, $0.05 outside. The access fee is nearly $0.04. And, of course, these costs are for outbound only calls/SMS, incoming calls/SMS are free as they should be.

A typical $40 "plan" in the U.S. includes 450 anytime minutes, which means you're paying about $0.09 a minute-assuming you use all of your 450 minutes. If you only use half of those minutes, your effective per-minute rate doubles. Of course, that doesn't include taxes and made-up fees. Or SMS messages, which can cost up to $0.20 a message sent or received unless you pay for a package that you're not likely to use all of.

Is there any wonder why most Americans hate their wireless carrier?