What do your monthly bills total?

[Savonarola]

Nope. In the UK the standard is that you sign an 18-month plus contract and get the phone for free.

I thought that maybe it was the other way round and North Americans had short, easily changed contracts so had to pay more but we got cheaper, long-term deals that lock us in.

Maybe there's just more competition in mobiles in the UK/Europe?

How do you assign licenses in the UK?  In the US we have the auction model, where companies bid on spectrum in a region.  A number of countries use the "Beauty Pageant" model where the company that promises the best coverage gets the license for the entire country (and later can be fined if they don't meet it.)  The auction model is more expensive since there's a enormous up front cost.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I have chosen to rent a room in a dilapidated apartment in a great location (and with very good flatmates), so my total monthly bills total £720 for everything.

Sounds great, and you'll have enough left over to actually enjoy what London offers 

[mongers]

I have chosen to rent a room in a dilapidated apartment in a great location (and with very good flatmates), so my total monthly bills total £720 for everything.

Sounds great, and you'll have enough left over to actually enjoy what London offers 

What there's more to it than just the Swedish pub ?

[Richard Hakluyt]

Poor old Delirium 

Teetotal for medical reasons he gaily flies over from Sweden for the weekend and is then forced to spend 36 hours in London's Swedish pub with a band of drunken idiots 

He must have been a real bastard in a former life to have deserved that 

[Sheilbh]

How do you assign licenses in the UK? 

Auction for a 20 year license (the 3G one brought in around £20 billion for the Treasury) half has to be up-front the rest can be paid over the twenty years.

[DGuller]

Rent + monthly utility bills + car expenses total to about $3000.

[Ed Anger]

So, did I win this dick-waving contest?

[CountDeMoney]

So, did I win this dick-waving contest?

Crêpe ass cracker.

[mongers]

Poor old Delirium 

Teetotal for medical reasons he gaily flies over from Sweden for the weekend and is then forced to spend 36 hours in London's Swedish pub with a band of drunken idiots 

He must have been a real bastard in a former life to have deserved that 

[garbon]

Poor old Delirium 

Teetotal for medical reasons he gaily flies over from Sweden for the weekend and is then forced to spend 36 hours in London's Swedish pub with a band of drunken idiots 

He must have been a real bastard in a former life to have deserved that 

Wait didn't he also show up the time I was around with Berk and Eochaid or did that just round at the Swedish pub just happen for the sake of memories?

[garbon]

/I was young and drunk so have essentially no memory. Apart from the story about black people in England who were essentially bred away.

[Ideologue]

I bred a black person away once.

[Brazen]

/I was young and drunk so have essentially no memory. Apart from the story about black people in England who were essentially bred away.

When I met you there, they were reminiscing about last time, so you haven't forgotten, no.

It may have been me talking about how there was a significant black population in London in the 17th Century, but they intermingled so successfully, Londoners are now all a little bit black.

I think I heard that from Eddie Izzard's Mongrel Nation TV series.