I’ve never purchased a ringtone for my cell phone, and I don’t ever intend to – they are just too damn expensive. How expensive? On Telus, ringtones cost $3.50 CDN each. With Bell, they range from $2.50 to $4.00 CDN each. And on Rogers, comparable ringtones start at $3.00 CDN each, excluding a 75 cent download fee.
So after a little math we get an average cost of $3.50 CDN for a single ringtone. What else could you buy for $3.50?
- My favorite – two items from the McDonald’s Value Picks Menu. And for 49 cents more, you could get one of the Value Meals.
- You could purchase three complete songs from iTunes.
- Two 710 ml bottles of Gatorade at Wal-Mart.
- Almost two Grande coffees at Starbucks, or two Extra Large coffees at McDonald’s.
- You could store 20 GB of data at Amazon S3 for a month. Or 1 GB for 20 months. Or you could transfer up to 15 GB in a month.
- Any one of the 63,275 items available on eBay in just the DVD, HD-DVD & Blu-ray category that are less than $3.50.
- A breakfast sandwich from Tim Horton’s.
- And of course, three items from pretty much any dollar store!
Can you think of a worse deal? Cupcakes are expensive. Perhaps gas – you could only get 4.3 liters in Edmonton today for $3.50 CDN. Transportation in general sucks actually. One trip on ETS costs $2.50 CDN.
The high price of ringtones is just sick. Why pay Bell $4.00 for a ringtone when you could pay them $5.99 and get an entire movie streamed to your phone? It’s absurd.
Please don’t buy ringtones – it only encourages the wireless carriers to charge such ridiculous prices.
MasterMaq's Blog 
Funny now half of the under 3.50 items you suggest are unhealthy dietary items (also consumable in the non-asset/re-usable sense), i.e. nothing of quality being given up when choosing to spend your 3.50 on a ringtone.
But yes they are expensive and the cost of mobile data transfer is without doubt extortionate. I can only image what will happen when HSDPA (currently trialing in GTA) goes nationwide if there isn’t an ‘unlimited’ package
DVDs? Songs? A service from Amazon.com? Keep in mind this was a quick list. There’s probably dozens of things I could have included.
I remember back in 2004 I was crazy about ringtones, I downloaded them like crazy. When I got my Sony Ericsson K500i in 2005 September, I went crazy dowloading mp3 clips to use as ringtones. Then I got my Motorola V3i where I can store 256 mb worth of mp3s if I wanted to. Now, I don’t download them, I just connect the data cable and interchange the songs. I have some old software to make mp3 clips from the whole song, I I just want a section as the ringtone or even the middle of a song like a guitar solo as my RT. No longer downloading it as I get it free.
$3.50 is a lot for a ring tone. It’s also a lot for a cup of coffee. However, I’m much more inclined to spend $3.50 on something tangible, rather than a digital file.
Movies? On a cell phone? How can you even see the screen? Gah.
I agree with you that ringtones are a waste of money and I like how many examples you came to spend $3.50 on
$3.50 is a lot for a ring tone. It’s also a lot for a cup of coffee. However, I’m much more inclined to spend $3.50 on something tangible, rather than a digital file.
Movies? On a cell phone? How can you even see the screen? Gah.