Telecoms in the UK has always been an exception to the 'it's cheaper over there' law. Probably because of our higher population density. For instance the US has had free local calls for a long time - but by local they often mean just a block or two. In the UK local calls have always been cheap and our definition of local is 'anywhere within 35km' with some exceptions made for towns/cities with strong links. We also tend to pay lower standing charges and international calls are a lot cheaper even without a special deal.

I'm not sure about broadband. I think ours is still cheaper but we pay for that in service quality. I still think we should be praised for our near universal availability but congestion and usage allowances are a bit naff and it's time someone did something for those still on less than 2Mb/s.