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The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)

cable.co.uk

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Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)

#131

Post by Scapeghost »

amingilani wrote: post #47

Not 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…

And let's not forget being assumed to be a spammer by almost all sites, getting rate limited or shadowbanned, not to mention being buried with captchas and having to do unpaid labor to train Google's AI just to access some sites! If you're not outright blocked, that is.

All for having an IP address originating from such regions with cheap internet that you can't do much with anyway.

Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)

#132

Post by noarchy »

voisin wrote: post #130
throw0101a wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 th…

Yes, “national security” is used to justify all manner of protectionism in this country. We sure love our oligopolies.

>Yes, “national security” is used to justify all manner of protectionism in this country. We sure love our oligopolies.

That and outright monopolies created by the government itself.

Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)

#133

Post by Scoundreller »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #20

This is great. But additional and important context is speed. Knowing coverage would be a plus as well. Slow with mediocre coverage might be inexpensive but that waiting (and swearing?) comes with a cost.

In Canada, it's the opposite. Due to high prices, the speeds are very fast.

But this can also mean that a single poor decision can leave you data less (or rationing) for the rest of the month. Most plans just lock you up until you pay more, rather than continue throttled.

Then you have software obviously written by people with zero consideration for data costs. NPR One app thinks it's a great idea to pre-stream hundreds of MB of content. Thanks NPR. Zoom doesn't have any low-bandwidth modes. While iOS lets you enforce a 'low-data mode' when tethering to metered connections, OS X doesn't. Thanks OS X for downloading that update while I was on a train. I was doing my best to ration what I had left by using Lynx for fuck's sake.

Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)

#134

Post by noisy_boy »

geodel wrote: post #81
nippoo wrote: post #67

I've been amazed at the effects of this every time I've visited India. With data so cheap, social media use is prolific - people share videos and stream all day long - and public WiFi is far less commonplace since essentially /everybody/ owns phones with almost unlimited data plans. India still has a long way to go in terms of social equality, poverty and breaking up the caste system, but providing fast, cheap Intern…

Sorry, But I have seen the opposite effect of cheap internet there. People spend lot of time in spread hatred, fake news and animosity using internet service. I have seen this first hand with so many of my educated friends and relatives who were reasonable folks before internet boom and now they come across caricature of dimwit person. With so much information available on internet they still chose to pick lowest qua…

Not sure why you were downvoted because this is exactly what is going on. One might say that the problems were societal and already there - technology has just provided the bandwidth for explosive spread of these things. To be fair, it has also provided an amazing increase in outreach. A person in a village with barely any infrastructure can have a video call with their friends/family - that is empowering.

Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)

#135

Post by Scoundreller »

skolsuper wrote: post #127
Scoundreller wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't all of that censorship make .pk internet access more expensive than it would be? Firewalls and maintaining them aren't free. Cheaper to let it all pass through, especially when it isn't harmful to the network itself.

Amortized over 100m customers, in a country where network engineers can be found for $250/month, they're pretty close to free. It's easy to underestimate how profitable it is to run a telco

Sure, but that just means it's an irrelevant factor when comparing low vs. high telecom costs.

Though my thinking is when selling censorship equipment to a country, you probably charge a country like .pk more because you know they'll find a way to pay for best-in-class.

Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)

#136

Post by Reason077 »

martinmunk wrote: post #114

I’m in Denmark. I have “3” as a phone provider and have essentially an unlimited plan for 30usd, with free roaming in most of the world. My home internet is served as an IOT plan with a “300MB” plan that in practice the network owned by the old national provider don’t cap, so I hit 1TB on 4G with a monthly fee of ~4.7USD. I know many people who does the same. The US really seem like in need of some good old competiti…

Same in the UK: 3's inclusive free global roaming (works in 71 countries! almost anywhere I'd ever go) is absolutely brilliant.

Unfortunately their UK network is awful, slow and broken, so I had to leave them. But I really miss the roaming.

Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)

#137

Post by jagger27 »

itsoktocry wrote: post #83
amingilani wrote: post #47

Not 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…

> for my Canadian internet plan. What is a "Canadian internet plan"? Service is far different in rural Northern Ontario than it is in Toronto.

I was barely an hour outside of Ottawa in the Gatineau Hills last week and didn't have usable coverage.

Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)

#138

Post by jdietrich »

nippoo wrote: post #67

I've been amazed at the effects of this every time I've visited India. With data so cheap, social media use is prolific - people share videos and stream all day long - and public WiFi is far less commonplace since essentially /everybody/ owns phones with almost unlimited data plans. India still has a long way to go in terms of social equality, poverty and breaking up the caste system, but providing fast, cheap Intern…

India is a remarkable success story in mobile data. A great deal of that success is due to Reliance Jio, who launched an LTE-only network in 2016 and totally disrupted the Indian market.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jio

Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)

#139

Post by donmcronald »

amingilani wrote: post #47

Not 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…

Maybe, but those numbers are basically bullshit in terms of the real cost to get a phone plan with 1GB of data. I WISH 1GB of data was $12 in Canada.

Unless you’re willing to make some huge concessions you won’t find a phone plan with unlimited calling, unlimited texting, and 1GB of data for less than $40 CAD / month. I currently do BYOD + 3Mb/s throttle + no support + low priority on saturated towers (IMO but not provable) for $23 per month.

I wish the government would set reasonable pay per use data rates and make all the carriers abide by them. $12 / GB would be a godsend for low end, price sensitive users.

Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)

#140

Post by Sebb767 »

geodel wrote: post #81
nippoo wrote: post #67

I've been amazed at the effects of this every time I've visited India. With data so cheap, social media use is prolific - people share videos and stream all day long - and public WiFi is far less commonplace since essentially /everybody/ owns phones with almost unlimited data plans. India still has a long way to go in terms of social equality, poverty and breaking up the caste system, but providing fast, cheap Intern…

Sorry, But I have seen the opposite effect of cheap internet there. People spend lot of time in spread hatred, fake news and animosity using internet service. I have seen this first hand with so many of my educated friends and relatives who were reasonable folks before internet boom and now they come across caricature of dimwit person. With so much information available on internet they still chose to pick lowest qua…

This might be true (it appears we have similar people in the western world). However, I think you're being downvoted because it seems you're advocating less internet access in the hopes of more equality.

It brings up an interesting question, though: Assuming for the moment that internet access actually increases hatred - is more hate towards a group a good tradeoff for empowering them by giving them internet access as well?

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