I was using $70 as an example of how easily things add up. To get to $1000 a year, you have to hit a little over $83. Assuming it's after tax, that's $70-75 a month, I'm guessing.

Meanwhile, unlimited talk plans are between $70-100 for an individual plan. Family plans, on the other hand, are more. At Sprint and AT&T, they cost $120 for the first two lines and $9.99 per additional line. So, for a family of 4, that's $140 — or about $70 per parent. (And you'd want unlimited. Most other plans top out at about 2000 minutes: about than 30 minutes per person per weekday for a family of 3.)

Between that and people increasingly getting unlimited minutes so they don't have to worry about overages… It's pretty obvious how we're getting $83 per person for cell phone usage.

And if we're including family plans, then that would actually make the cost *less* per person. Are they actually talking about the average *account* instead? That would make better sense, perhaps.

Don't forget: The $1,000 a year on cell phones doesn't include data plans! My guess is that a good chunk of the $80ish comes from family plans. I hope.

On the other hand, since a lot of people are forgoing land lines or are simply constantly using their cell, I think $80-ish is plausible. A low set of minutes plus nights/weekends will easily run $40. So people who use their cell phones a lot might upgrade to the $60-70 plans. And let's not forget unlimited talk runs around $100, last I checked. (Which, admittedly, was awhile ago.) So you figure for every person spending only $40 a month, someone spending $100 a month will average out to $70.

Elizabeth,

I wondered the same thing about taxes. My guess is that they are included. Most surveys I've taken that ask about cell phone costs ask about after-tax amounts.

Also I understand what you mean about logistics. We were very happy with Dish in Seattle, but couldn't get it in our apartment here. Luckily, DirecTV was able to get us a signal. Otherwise, our cable bill would have been about what you're paying now.

As for communication costs, the $1,000 per year (as I mentioned in the post) doesn't include data plans. That's what's truly scary about it! Still, if you think of the number of Americans who have family plans for themselves and their kids, it's not a huge stretch to imagine such a big bill.

We pay almost exactly $50 for internet each month. We have high speed since we use it instead of t.v. and we often have to download large files for work. We don't buy a lot of books or video games. And we don't go out to see movies a lot (once, maybe twice a year) or rent a lot of stuff, either. Mostly, we get stuff from the library. So, we spend $600 for the internet and maybe another $100-$150 on other entertainment. And again, that's for us as a couple. Not bad, I'd say!

Now, phone is where could spend some money since we're business owners on the go a lot. Fortunately, my husband gets an allowance from his full-time job that covers most of it. We both have Blackberries with unlimited text and data, but he has unlimited voice while I have whatever the lowest number of anytime minutes is (I've never come even close to going over and used like 23 one month). Those plans come out to $180 total and then he may or may not keep a $30 data plan from another company from another mobile device he has for work. So, max that's $2,520 a year (though we pay much less out of pocket). Again, that's for us a couple, though, and we don't have a land line or separate business plans.

So, yes, considering that we're paying $2,520 for THREE data plans, unlimited texting on 2 phones, unlimited talk on one, and some talk on another, and we don't have a separate land line or business line, I wonder how in the heck the AVERAGE American is spending $1000 to talk on a cell. Maybe they should switch to Sprint if they can like we did.