"Mr Watson, come here. I want to bill you."

Vinnie Mirchandani has a bee in his bonnet about the cost of telecoms. I was originally sceptical about his claims that we were being colossally over-charged and argued that the benefits of proliferating wireless hotspots, "3G" connections and high-speed home broadband far outweighed their cost. In other words, I believed that there was a large consumer surplus when purchasing these services. Vinnie argued with me in the comments to my posting and helped me see his side of the argument.

He has now expanded on his argument and written an article on the topic for Real Finance where he points out how the cost of conference lines, calling cards, ad-hoc employee wifi access and all the rest can really mount up.

Sobering stuff.