Now wonder telecom spending is up. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports that the proportion of household spending on communications jumped significantly between 1995 and 2005. The OECD member countries cover a wide swath of the globe, so this is not specifically an American trend, but when I think about how much I now spend monthly on phone (wired and wireless), TV and Internet service, I’d say the growth curve definitely illustrates my household.
The top categories we’re spending significantly more on proportionally include communications, health, and “audio-visual: photographic and information processing equipment”. Categories we’re spending significantly less on include clothing and footwear, food and non-alcoholic beverages, and furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance.
The latest OECD report covers a lot more than just trends in household spending – 318 pages more in fact. Another nugget Om Malik ferreted out is a stat on US broadband pricing versus the rest of the world. The US ranks 13th in price per megabit per month. Could be worse, but then again with all the ways we have to increase bandwidth, it could be a lot better too.
