The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020) • Hacker News Board

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

#141

Post by amingilani » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:34 AM UTC

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.

My bad, Toronto for me. Still a bit new to Canada to it's all Canadian to me.

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

#142

Post by amingilani » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:37 AM UTC

Deathmax wrote: post #80

actuator wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely, they can't be MITMing HTTPS traffic without Cloudflare's blessing? Services not being available by region, that can be a bummer but that's not really a problem on internet service provider as such. Also, I am surprised that one more country is building a GFW.

It would be possible for an ISP to MITM the traffic between Cloudflare and the origin server since it can be configured to be done via unencrypted HTTP or non-trusted certs on HTTPS (flexible SSL). See https://medium.com/@karthikb351/airtel-is-sniffing-and-censo... for an example of Cloudflare serving a MITM notice page for pirate bay.

Yes, that or they just cut the connection to the origin entirely.

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

#143

Post by tonyarkles » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:39 AM UTC

kovek wrote: post #109

inglor wrote: post #69

Israeli 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 a…

And then there’s Saskatchewan, where SaskTel is a gov’t owned telco. Their prices are not great, but they provide service through the vast majority of the inhabited portions of the province. Out here, Bell and Telus both peer from SaskTel’s towers. Back in the CDMA days, Rogers ran their own 3G network, but recently they have started partnering with SaskTel as well to provide LTE coverage to their customers outside of the two main cities.

Edit: I missed the point! SaskTel exists as a government-owned pseudo-monopoly because it wouldn’t be profitable to provide the service level they provide to rural communities. There’s small WISPs that cover little parts of the province, but they all get backhaul from SaskTel.

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

#144

Post by iamAtom » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:41 AM UTC

In India BSNL Fibernet has stepped up their game. Even rural towns and villages (not all but the list is growing) now have access to 100Mbps internet for ~10 USD

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

#145

Post by amingilani » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:42 AM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #111

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…

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.

They were doing the bare minimum at first. PTA would order the ISPs to censor resources which would implement the block alone and that's it. Easy to bypass with HTTPS, a 3rd party DNS server, or a VPN. They've since bought an $18.5m web monitoring system from Sandvine and centralized the censorship under PTA. The companies don't deal with it anymore: https://www.codastory.com/authoritarian-tech/surveillance/pa...

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

#146

Post by donmcronald » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:45 AM UTC

geodel wrote: post #103

notRobot wrote: post #3

I 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 wee…

> 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.

In Canada they do that and keep the extra profits. Koodo is one of Telus’ flanker brands (for the illusion of competition) and even though they’ve increased phone and plan pricing a fair bit over the last couple of years they’ve gotten rid of the ability to directly call customer support.

The Canadian government has been promising us action in the mobile industry for ages, but year after year after year our prices go up and up and up.

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

#147

Post by tjbiddle » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:47 AM UTC

American living in Indonesia here.

I never bother to purchase actual "minutes" on my local SIM. Instead I just buy pure data plans and run everything through there. I usually just load up ~14GB for $7 which lasts 30 days - it could be even cheaper if I bought more in bulk, but I never need it. Almost all of my communication is done over WhatsApp, and when I need to call an actual number I use Google Voice / Hangouts which which is over data and has very cheap minutes.

In comparison, whenever I visit the US I pop in my T-Mobile SIM and buy a prepaid plan from them for a month. I think it's usually ~$50-70/mo.

A lot of my family is on Google Fi and said I should switch over since it's "So easy for my international travels" but it just makes zero sense. If I pop over to another country it's very simple to just buy a local SIM at the airport and I'm good to go.

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

#148

Post by high_pathetic » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:49 AM UTC

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 doubt any Canadian plan has any kind of censoring the previous poster mentioned.

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

#149

Post by donmcronald » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:54 AM UTC

Thaxll wrote: post #48

Canada #209 out of 228 I'm not surprised, CRTC is useless, mobile / internet is still crazy expensive in 2020.

Weird how Harper and Trudeau both promised to address it and we got nothing.

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

#150

Post by geodel » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:58 AM UTC

Sebb767 wrote: post #140

geodel wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

You are right. I could have worded differently to not imply that less internet is better. Point is that better internet connectivity lead to better social outcomes at large is wishful thinking.