US has the Most Expensive Mobile Data Plans in the World

Mohonri said:
What MVNO are you talking about that's that cheap?
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Mine is Xfinity Mobile, it requires you to be an Xfinity customer mind you, and if I wasn't it'd cost an extra $10 per line IIRC. You might argue that I get a cheap service because I'm paying for an expensive one, but I'd have the service anyways since at the time it was the only option for anything faster than 5Mbps. And if we use more than 1Gb, then it's another $12 no big deal, at the end of the day it was cheaper than what we were using which was MetroPCS (not exactly a major carrier)

Here's an article showing other options, maybe not as cheap as $12 per gig for up to 5 phones, but there are still $10/month plans. Granted some of these certainly suck, and you probably are not going to get all the bells and whistles (and reliability) as a major carrier. But if it does what you want, why should you pay more? Not saying this is for everyone as your lifestyle may differ than mine (someone who's near wifi I can jump onto most the time, and when I'm out I don't need to do "high data" things like watching videos and what not)
https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375644,00.asp
 
vegeta535 said:
Then why are they trying to force caps on landline down our throats now? We have the tech now to do it. They don't want too cause why should they? So they can pay out billions to roll the tech out for us to have better/cheaper service? It is pure greed.
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I just agreed wireline (landline) is a money grab, even though I know they fall into boatloads of regulatory cost barriers as well.

Overall though, Americans want speeds up to a gig like small tech savvy countries have. Its easy for them with such a small footprint both physically and consumer. Charter for example jumping up from 100MB to 200Mb required their entire network be bumped to handle that load. Routers capable of handling multiple petabytes of traffic cost multiple millions of dollars let alone the expertise do roll them out without network impact. Then they also had to upgrade all customer modems from doc3 to doc 3.1.

Overall just hope the internet doesn't turn into the fuel industry, pay for what you use. That is already being discussed in the FCC and by carriers.
 
trentchau said:
Extensive probably up there, best...from what I heard about Korea and Norway...I believe we aren't even close.
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I had excellent coverage while spending a year in Osan. But... Sourh Korea can honestly fit its entire boarders inside a lot of US states, with excess room left over.
 
Last year i got a huawei p10 lite and 16 gig of data for £29.99 a month (uk).

Sixteen gigabytes. I'd say you're being creamed in the states boy oh boy
 
MacLeod said:
We probably also have the best and most extensive networks in the world too. You gotta work pretty hard to find a spot that doesn't have cell service these days. That's part of what you're paying for.
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Uhhhmmmmhmmmm, lemme guess, you live in a major city.

Try stepping out of that major hub and then we will talk again. You get outside any major city and coverage and speed fucking SUCK ASS. Live in a moderate sized city in some shit hole state like Mississippi (like I do) and your tune would quickly change.

We are getting fucked and I'm sick and tired of hearing about how "we are so spread out, blah blah blah..." fuck that, it is all about greed and scum-baggery plain and simple.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Mine is Xfinity Mobile, it requires you to be an Xfinity customer mind you, and if I wasn't it'd cost an extra $10 per line IIRC. You might argue that I get a cheap service because I'm paying for an expensive one, but I'd have the service anyways since at the time it was the only option for anything faster than 5Mbps. And if we use more than 1Gb, then it's another $12 no big deal, at the end of the day it was cheaper than what we were using which was MetroPCS (not exactly a major carrier)

Here's an article showing other options, maybe not as cheap as $12 per gig for up to 5 phones, but there are still $10/month plans. Granted some of these certainly suck, and you probably are not going to get all the bells and whistles (and reliability) as a major carrier. But if it does what you want, why should you pay more? Not saying this is for everyone as your lifestyle may differ than mine (someone who's near wifi I can jump onto most the time, and when I'm out I don't need to do "high data" things like watching videos and what not)
https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375644,00.asp
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I'm getting 2GB for about $13/mo with a freedompop semi-annual prepaid plan. After that data is shut off, but you can purchase more if you want. Wanna say the 5GB plan is $17 or $19/mo. Not fantastic, but better than most plans I looked at.
 
STrooperTK421 said:
Uhhhmmmmhmmmm, lemme guess, you live in a major city.

Try stepping out of that major hub and then we will talk again. You get outside any major city and coverage and speed fucking SUCK ASS. Live in a moderate sized city in some shit hole state like Mississippi (like I do) and your tune would quickly change.

We are getting fucked and I'm sick and tired of hearing about how "we are so spread out, blah blah blah..." fuck that, it is all about greed and scum-baggery plain and simple.
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Ummmmmmmmm no, I live in a small to medium sized county. Chattanooga is the nearest city at around 20 miles away and that's certainly not a major city. I was also a truck driver for 2 decades and have been in every state in the lower 48 using a cell phone the last 17 of those years. I'm typing this now on my phone at work literally out in the boondocks, sitting here looking at a cow pasture 30 minutes from the nearest town.. I've got 3 bars of 4G.

I know there are dead spots out there and some areas of the country could have very large gaps but generally in this country, you really gotta get off the beaten path to find them and while I have no proof to give you, I will say it's a pretty safe bet the rest of the world will have a whole lot more of the dead zones than we do with our networks.
 
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Charts incorrect, im in the UK and until very recently was paying £15 (~19dollars) per month, for unlimited data, unlimited texts, and 300 minutes.. With 4G, My dad pays £12(~15 dollars) for the same.. it has £30 for 100GB in the chart, and doesn't represent the unlimited deals for the UK....


Edit.. hmm there only looking at 1000 minute call deals... i dont know anyone that has one of those.. who the hell uses a phone to call someone anyway.. ;)
 
Don't trust the coverage maps telecoms put out. There's no high speed internet up in the mountain or away from big cities and highways. I mean really, what would be the point anyway?
 
The joys of US Consumers subsidizing and developing technology for the rest of the world to enjoy.
 
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American corporate culture has become a system of near Monopolies or Oligopolies. Our public ownership model needs to be re-worked to reward competition not exploitation of a captive market.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Last I was in Canada years ago I remember just about everything being Rogers. Has that improved/changed since?
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Canada's Big 3 mobile companies are Bell, Rogers, and Telus (coast-to-coast coverage). Part of the problem is that we have quite a few "smaller" providers that are actually owned by the Big 3; but there are provinces that have cell phone companies that operate within their home province...SaskTel in Saskatchewan for example.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_mobile_phone_companies
 
MacLeod said:
We probably also have the best and most extensive networks in the world too. You gotta work pretty hard to find a spot that doesn't have cell service these days. That's part of what you're paying for.
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Having a coverage map is one thing. The actual signal on the other hand did not reflect to the map at all.

Hell, even in Bay Area, the Silicon Valley with a lot of places in city still have little to no signal.
 
How about Canada exceeds the US. Seen data plans in Canada. Total rip off. Seems North America in general are expensive.
 
Sometimes I feel like we pay more than anyone so that everyone else gets it cheaper or for next to nothing.
 
freeloader1969 said:
I pay $40 CDN for 2GB of data. You mean to tell me Americans pay more? Who knew...
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Is $40 CAD supposed to be bad? The base Verizon plan in the US is $45 USD / 59.35 CAD for 2GB.... Its not unusual for a family of four to pay over $260 USD/month on a "shared" plan.
 
Master_shake_ said:
I used to pay 35 for 1.
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Bloody insane!

Arcygenical said:
The means are offset by al the recent 10gb plans with really shit coverage here.

I can get 10gb for 40$ that only works in major cities. The drive from Toronto to Barrie, on freedom mobile, would be hell.

I had a cell from all major carriers for a day and did some testing, returned the worst ones with my 3 day/ 90 min/ 10mb cooling off clause.
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I had Freedom but couldn't stand the coverage. Switched to Virgin when they had a new customer sale. Got a 2GB data paln, unlimited text and calling.

wizdum said:
Is $40 CAD supposed to be bad? The base Verizon plan in the US is $45 USD / 59.35 CAD for 2GB.... Its not unusual for a family of four to pay over $260 USD/month on a "shared" plan.
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Holy shit. I'd rather go without phones if I had to pay that much but I am cheap. :)
 
{NG}Fidel said:
This is very true in Tallahassee Florida
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Same in New Zealand. They lie to fluff up OECD numbers regularly for broadband penetration when in reality, broadband here sucks outside of the city in almost every place I have been to. They use the 'connection speed' as the 'rated speed' without accounting for 80 people sharing one conklin DSLAM and how fucked that is performance wise.
I'm supposed to have 5mbit, reality, about 5-10kb/sec during peak.
5mbit at 4am perhaps and all the townies are out on holiday? If I'm lucky...

Cellphone data here is expensive too. $20NZD for 1gb, which is about 13.8USD/gb
 
Nolan7689 said:
Nope it isn’t greed to want affordable unlimited data given that the internet is in fact not finite. Bandwidth is finite, and we get what we pay for but applying data caps is just asinine.

But yes, go ahead and act as though it’s just “entitled kids” as opposed to people with an actual functioning brain.
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Ideally everyone should have unlimited data as how much data you use is not relevant. What is relevant is how much data is being consumed in one or a small number of towers in one area at the same time. If you saturate the data carrying and/or number of simultaneous connections (aka network congestion) you will run into problems. There is no reason to limit data speeds unless it is to deal with network congestion. Everything else is just pure bullshit.

If cell companies want to charge based on tiers, they should do it based on the order in which you would get throttled based on network congestion. The more you pay, the later you get throttled. Note that this should be data agnostic throttling and no specific type of data should have any priority, except for that data related to emergency services only (ex 911 calls).
 
dgingeri said:
A. We're spread out over a much larger area than the rest of these countries, with lower population density.
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Huh? Canada? WTF! I am not sure of the data used in the article, but us Canadians never get anything cheaper then the U.S.
I guarantee that there are millions of Canadians that drool over what is available down south.
 
This report is so full of shit. Canada is literally one of the most expensive country on the planet for data plans, PERIOD. The USA is half the price of Canadian plans, even AFTER exchange rate. Just visit any Bell, Telus, or Rogers website and check the plans for any province and you'll see the joke of plans that are available. It's so bad, it's actually probably going to be an election issue.
 
MacLeod said:
We probably also have the best and most extensive networks in the world too. You gotta work pretty hard to find a spot that doesn't have cell service these days. That's part of what you're paying for.
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Some truth there but after checking 4g for verizon, sprint, cricket, t-mobile, us. cellular, at&t, all of these show significant lack of coverage from the rockies to the West coast. Basically once you head east past the rockies they all look good but otherwise spotty at best. I personally know with Verizon that in the stretches from AZ to NM to CO if you get more than a few miles off the interstates, past the metro's, the coverage drops quickly in many places.

https://www.uscellular.com/coverage-map/coverage-indicator.html

https://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/coverage-map

https://www.att.com/maps/wireless-coverage.html

https://www.cricketwireless.com/map.html

https://coverage.sprint.com/IMPACT.jsp?

https://www.sensorly.com/en/map/US/...=40.39688535659784,-105.50289149680157&zoom=6
 
US seems to have a stable and reliable network. But coverage in Hawaii is abysmal, especially in the mountains and far out into the ocean (obviously).
 
PaulP said:
If you look at areal coverage, the US has everybody else beat. For such a large country, there is amazingly good coverage.
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You also have a lot of people paying for that "coverage".. Would be different if you were 30 mil people and not 325 mil.
Either way.. Been to many countries around the world and the states has the worst coverage from what I've experienced. Can't get 10 miles out of San Antonio and I will lose connection depending on the provider. My foreign sim has better coverage and accepts more cell towers than the standard providers in the states with their individual cell towers. My European provider is giving me 20gb of data for $12 a month and I can use it in 59 countries around the world, while with my American provider I pay $25 for 10gb of data here in the states.. And that's apparently really cheap here.
 
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Nobu said:
I'm getting 2GB for about $13/mo with a freedompop semi-annual prepaid plan. After that data is shut off, but you can purchase more if you want. Wanna say the 5GB plan is $17 or $19/mo. Not fantastic, but better than most plans I looked at.
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I have 2GB LTE + unlimited call/text for $15/mo. I think after 2GB it goes back to 3G, but for stuff like whatsapp it's fine. I typically do about 20-25G/month on wifi and about 1G/month on LTE. Works great. Mintsim, t-mobile NVO.

I really hope 5G gets popular, NOT because I need it for mobile, but so that it scares the beejezus out of land line/home isps when people start abandoning their land line internet. If that happens, prices should go down.
 
freeloader1969 said:
I pay $40 CDN for 2GB of data. You mean to tell me Americans pay more? Who knew...
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I pay $50 a line for 22GB before it drops down to 3G speeds o_O I'll pass on overpaying for 2GB. If all I wanted was a 2GB plan that can be had for $30 and under.
 
The report clearly has its limitations:
  • It's only about 4G costs.
  • Presented pricing are the median values, so 50% of local options are cheaper.
  • Nothing about area coverage.
  • Nothing about what else is included.
I use the provider that has the very best area cover locally (and nationally). Still there are lots of areas off the beaten path that lack even basic phone connectivity. On the other hand that service provider also has some public areas covered by WiFi that offer better/faster connectivity.
My chosen level of cell phone service cost me about USD 1.10 per megabyte if/when using 4G for data, but the WiFi is free of charge. Since i have that free WiFi at work and a personal WiFi network at home I rarely have any use for 4G data. This summer as I was to be away from home and work for a while I spent $11 to get 1GB allotted to use for a month, and I used only half of it.
 
I pay €30 a month for unlimited calls, unlimited texts and unlimited data (fair usage of 60GB)
So...not bad
 
vegeta535 said:
Honestly there is no reason other then greed that we still don't have true unlimited data now for a decent price.
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I pay $40/month for unlimited everything through Visible here in the states. I get the reliability of Verizon's network with unlimited data (capped at 5mbps) for only $40. That's a decent price... in fact I think it's a steal.
 
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We need to do a comparison of companys’ net profit Per GB and that will tell us everything we want to know.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Even in the U.S ~85% of people live in urban areas.

It's the country bumpkins who are ruining everything for the rest of us :p If we could just ignore cell coverage in flyover country, the prices would be much more reasonable for the rest of us :p
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You still have to run millions of miles of fiber optic cables connecting all the metro areas.



Something little baby countries don't do.
 
Coverage in Southwestern PA STILL suks right this very minute, even though every single carrier claims they have "the best/most complete" coverage available..... in my daily 60 mile trip to & from work along 4 major interstates/highways, I go through 6 deadzones that last for several miles each.........

no excuses for this after the many, many years of extremely overpriced plans, unless of course you count the only real deciding factor called............ wait for it.......... G. R. E. E. D.

and puhleeeze, don't micky mouse lecture me about how much it cost to build out a network, I am well aware of said cost by virtue of my work with a large telecom company that builds and manages said networks and it's infrastructure..........
 
I pay £15 ($22.50) for 12GB with Three Mobile in the UK with "feel at home" coverage i.e. I have free coverage in most countries including when back home the US.

My parents pay nearly twice that for worse plans on Verizon and have to pay a hefty extra fee when travelling outside the US.
 
$220/month 3 lines, unlimited data (no throttling I've seen, either). Verizon.
 
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So expensive... what's wrong with $40 prepaid? Need the country to fight the overpriced battle, especially of phones. Who wants to pay $500-1000 for a damn cell phone?
 
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