The New America Institute, dubious claims of the existence of a G2 rootkit notwithstanding, has published a new study showing that Canadians pay the highest of any country in the world for their cellphone plans. In fact, not only do we pay the most for per-minute voice calls, but when factoring in the Smartphone package (namely voice, text and data together) Canucks pay an average of $67.50.

The breakdown is kind of extraordinary when you compare it to inexpensive countries such as Hong Kong and India, whose minimum “complete package” prices of $13.50 and $12.90 are, to my wallet-savaged Canadian eyes, practically free.

So where do Rogers, Telus and Bell get off charging such a huge amount of money per month for their cross-country 3G connectivity? Understandably, due to the huge surface area in which to cover the country with cell phone towers, the initial deployment and maintenance costs for the Big Three carriers must be higher than the average Hong Kong provider. But India, whose population totals 1.2 billion and has the lowest per/MB cost of any country, seems to be able to keep up with the huge bandwidth influx without raising prices.

Canada’s lack of competition and weak regulation have been reported by us, and other news organizations, for years now, but this new study really breaks down just how much more we are paying for the same service other countries receive for peanuts.

Check out the entire study and let us know how much you pay for your cell phone bill!