I'd wonder how they're accounting for 'unlimited' plans. In Ireland, for instance, about a third of people would be using Three, and most of their plans are 'unlimited' (in practice, there are limits after which they'll throttle you, I believe, but they're high).
The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
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Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#22I don't understand, why is it that it costs less than $1 in countries in Asia for a GB of mobile data but costs ~$15 for the same in the United States? Can someone with knowledge of the industry please explain the reasons for this discrepancy to me?
Cellular service clearly can be delivered more cheaply in poor countries. Telenor for example is Noweigian (very wealthy country) but offers service at lower prices in Myanmar. One reason is labor costs. Imagine how much it costs to build and maintain one tower in Norway with its high standard of living for everyone vs in Myanmar where people will work for much less, and with lower safety standards. And obviously pro…
Can you point to a source that says labour costs are the reason for high Telco prices? The ongoing maintainence of a tower seems like it would be fractional to operational cost.
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Woah that's quite an adventure! How come you stopped in Egypt and didn't go back to Morocco? Tunisia is a great country to visit.
It was always my dream to complete the loop, but the situation just didn't allow it. It is impossible to get a visa for Libya, and with the ongoing civil war the safety situation is B.A.D. Even if I got a visa, the Egyptian military wouldn't let me get anywhere NEAR the border. They're extremely protective of tourists and won't let them go anywhere "dangerous". They also wouldn't let me drive the Sinai over to Isreal…
Have you watched Motonomad? I guess Adam Riemann was lucky with the timing being allowed into Sinai.
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#24I don't understand, why is it that it costs less than $1 in countries in Asia for a GB of mobile data but costs ~$15 for the same in the United States? Can someone with knowledge of the industry please explain the reasons for this discrepancy to me?
Beyond the usual arguments about "the US is big", poor competition is probably a big part of it. US telcos have a lot of lockin, with very long contract lengths, poor acceptance of prepaid plans, and "family plans" being common. All of this makes it less likely that people will move network, so there's less incentive for telcos to actually compete on price.
EDIT: On the "US is big" point, it's notable that pricing doesn't really follow population density in Europe. The UK has four times the population density of Ireland, but only fractionally cheaper data. Germany has similar population density to the UK, but far more expensive data (though I wonder are they looking at all extant contracts or something; data recently got a lot cheaper in Germany).
All three countries have comparable household earnings. Sweden has a third the population density of Ireland (less than a tenth that of the UK!), slightly higher average data cost, _cheaper_ minimum data cost, and comparable household earnings.
In general, any attempt to explain this via recourse to population density, income or GDP fails in the developed world.
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#25What amazes me the most with my telco is that they charge $60 for a regular plan which includes 4GB of data, SMS and phone calls, but if I want to buy 1GB extra, it's $30-40 bucks. For a single 1GB of download.
What horrible carrier is that? Even in the US which has high cellular data costs it's usually $10/GB
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#26I'd wonder how they're accounting for 'unlimited' plans. In Ireland, for instance, about a third of people would be using Three, and most of their plans are 'unlimited' (in practice, there are limits after which they'll throttle you, I believe, but they're high).
They're not. They're deluded if they think anybody in Western Europe is paying $3.13 per GB in 2020. ;-)
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#27I'm Italian and I pay ~9 euros per month for 130 GB of uncapped 4G mobile Internet, so I can't really complain about it. Some new offers I've seen are as low as 6.99 for 100 GB + infinite calls. A few days ago I told this to a friend of mine who lives in the UK and he was shocked because he pays a lot more for like 2GB a month.
I guess healthy competition can really be good for consumers when it works as it is supposed to.
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cellular service clearly can be delivered more cheaply in poor countries. Telenor for example is Noweigian (very wealthy country) but offers service at lower prices in Myanmar. One reason is labor costs. Imagine how much it costs to build and maintain one tower in Norway with its high standard of living for everyone vs in Myanmar where people will work for much less, and with lower safety standards. And obviously pro…
Can you point to a source that says labour costs are the reason for high Telco prices? The ongoing maintainence of a tower seems like it would be fractional to operational cost.
Of course towers are a fraction of operating expenses. It was just an example of one piece of the puzzle. All labor costs in Myanmar are far lower, from marketing to lawyers to retail store staff.
And as I said, there are other reasons such as consumer surplus (rich people can pay more, so they do).
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#29Yeah, this isn't right. I pay (New Zealand) a hundred and something a month for 100GB 4G or 5G if you can get it.
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#30I don't understand, why is it that it costs less than $1 in countries in Asia for a GB of mobile data but costs ~$15 for the same in the United States? Can someone with knowledge of the industry please explain the reasons for this discrepancy to me?
You need to build coverage for a huge portion of the population to get a license in many western countries. So all customers in the less densely populated countries have share that cost.
There is also strict requirements on uptime and huge fines for telcos in western countries if the service goes down, even for just a moment. Needless to say that creating a resilient network costs a lot more.