Should also take into account cost of living. I believe Internet cost much more in poor countries.
The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
101–110 of 415 posts
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#102This is an amazing visualization and clearly shows what I found while traveling through Asia. Would love to see this mixed with average salary per country, which I expect will show an inverse correlation.
Even European countries are generally cheaper then US when it comes to mobile internet. E.g. France is 10 times cheaper on average. While France minimum hourly wage is $11.83 and US minimum hourly wage is between $7.25 to $14.00 (depending on state). It seems that US is a bit expensive regardless of the salary. Mobile companies are very competitive in Europe, and European regulations put fuel on the fire by making the number portability mandatory very early. Reducing the friction to change mobile operator while keeping the same number and with minimum to no downtime.
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#103I 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?
As someone work in that industry, I see that one huge cost is people (including me) working there. So first step will be eliminate or convert these millions or so jobs in telecom industry which currently offer middle class living to about or below subsistence level.
Another will be to bring down quality of service level. A couple of years back I was india and area where my mother lived had service down for like a week. That area must have a population of at least few 100Ks.
Third to have very little customer service staff. People here have legitimately said why the hell do I care about 1000s of customer service/call center staff. I want my service cheap. In countries like India they have done that. Social media call these companies evil but I think they are just trying to run cheap service.
Fourth is to spend much less on network equipments and field testing. Service is announced at much cheaper price point but backend systems are severely overloaded so one gets much more network/call drops.
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#104I 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?
Israel managed to significantly lower the rates with the introduction of the following changes:
- Ban on SIM-locking of phones to one provider
- Allowing users to change providers without losing their phone number
- Ban on "exit penalties" for customers leaving a contract
- Forcing existing infrastructure providers to share their infrastructure with virtual or not-yet-fully-deployed new providers
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Meanwhile, Greece with its telecom cartel is a few spots from last, with such good company as Turkmenistan, the Virgin Islands and, for some reason, Canada. I might as well get a SIM shipped to me from Italy every three months or so, it'll be lots cheaper.
Canada also has a telecom cartel. The CRTC, which is the gov't regulatory body (and which is controlled by the telecoms), limits access to the market.
> The CRTC, which is the gov't regulatory body (and which is controlled by the telecoms), limits access to the market.
The CRTC does not limit access to the market, the elected government does. For national security purposes foreign ownership is restricted:
> As it stands now [in 2018], foreign ownership of a telecommunications company is limited to no more than 20 per cent of a company’s voting shares and no more than 33.3 per cent of the voting shares of a carrier’s holding company, and an effective total limit of 46.7 per cent (as long as the foreign entity doesn’t have control). On top of that, at least 80 per cent of the board members must be Canadian citizens.
* https://financialpost.com/telecom/tight-reins-leaves-our-tel...
See Telecommunications Act, Section 16. That dictates only domestic companies can really do much, which is the incumbents of Bell, Telus, Rogers, etc.
Reduce foreign operator restrictions and foreign operators may come into the market and provide more competition.
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Important point. I was talking to my brother in India. Last month internet service was down in their building for 4 days. Unlike folks who go apoplectic over this, he understands that 3rd world prices do not come with first world service quality in practice. Most people do not have an option to move across continents just because somethings are cheaper there. And internet service is one small part of overall things o…
>Important point. I was talking to my brother in India. Last month internet service was down in their building for 4 days. Unlike folks who go apoplectic over this, he understands that 3rd world prices do not come with first world service quality in practice. 4 days is pretty good turn around time for most US cities that aren't NY or SF.
It was just his building or may be apartment complex. I imagine city wide outages are more severe and likely due to some event like storm etc.
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Important point. I was talking to my brother in India. Last month internet service was down in their building for 4 days. Unlike folks who go apoplectic over this, he understands that 3rd world prices do not come with first world service quality in practice. Most people do not have an option to move across continents just because somethings are cheaper there. And internet service is one small part of overall things o…
fwiw many of my coworkers in the Northeast US suffered multiday internet and power outages due to the storm that forced them to either take days off or travel >30m to find places with internet.
This sounds like an uncommon occurrence sure to an act of nature unlike what op was suggesting
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#108Not all Internet experiences are equal though. 1 GB of internet in Pakistan ($0.69) ≠ 1 GB of internet in Canada ($12.55). I would gladly trade my Pakistani internet plan for my Canadian internet plan. Last month, when I was in Pakistan, my experience was: + highly censored to the point where even services like Cloudflare's edge-node's within the country were being MiTM-ed by the censors [0]; + I couldn't use "any mo…
Important point. I was talking to my brother in India. Last month internet service was down in their building for 4 days. Unlike folks who go apoplectic over this, he understands that 3rd world prices do not come with first world service quality in practice. Most people do not have an option to move across continents just because somethings are cheaper there. And internet service is one small part of overall things o…
> Last month internet service was down in their building for 4 days
I don't live in India, but if it happened in an individual building that sounds like perhaps this was due to management of that building and was just an isolated incident.
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#109Israeli here, pay 7$ for 200GB of data (well I pay 14$ for 400GB and use one as home internet backup because it is cheap). It used to be quite expensive here at around $100/mo for 10GB but the government broke up the monopoly and forced competition into the market by making existing players share infrastructure. We went up from main 3 providers to around 10 and prices dropped sharply. My government screws up quite a…
That’s awesome! I wonder how people could achieve similar success in canada or the usa. In canada we have Bell, Videotron, Rogers.. there are some small companies that “sub-lease” the service. Also, there were mergers so I don’t remember if Rogers is still around.
In any case, I believe politicians have ties with these companies (and probably own shares) and will not encourage movements trying to split the manypoly apart.
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#110Israeli here, pay 7$ for 200GB of data (well I pay 14$ for 400GB and use one as home internet backup because it is cheap). It used to be quite expensive here at around $100/mo for 10GB but the government broke up the monopoly and forced competition into the market by making existing players share infrastructure. We went up from main 3 providers to around 10 and prices dropped sharply. My government screws up quite a…
"It used to be quite expensive here at around $100/mo for 10GB but the government broke up the monopoly and forced competition into the market by making existing players share infrastructure. We went up from main 3 providers to around 10 and prices dropped sharply.
"
That's what the US should do too, especially for home internet. For mobile there are a few pretty OK MVNO like Mint but for home internet there is 0 competition in a lot of areas.