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)

#151

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

actuator wrote: post #59

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…

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.

> surprised that one more country is building a GFW

Likely helped by China too, considering it's Pakistan

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

#152

Post by CGamesPlay » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:01 AM UTC

Funny story about my vodafone.es SIM card I bought last year. I used it for about 3 months while traveling in Europe and Turkey. I bought 8 GB for around 10 EUR, and didn't use nearly that much. I renewed that plan the following month, but due to some glitch in Vodafone's system, the same 10 EUR bought me 16 GB for the upcoming month. I renewed the following month, and my 10 EUR again bought me 32 GB! I hope I can reactivate that SIM when I go back to Europe, the monthly alotment should be up in the PBs by now.

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

#153

Post by donmcronald » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:01 AM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #123

izzydata wrote: post #19

I'm doing my part in the US by not paying for a single byte of mobile data. They will have to bring the price down for me to consider it.

Yah, I'm paying ~CAD$35 for 4gb of data (incl. voice/SMS), and while I could upgrade to 10gb for $50, I'm holding out for a 90%+ reduction in prices.

Where? What carrier? That’s $15 cheaper than anything I’m aware of.

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

#154

Post by edge17 » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:03 AM UTC

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…

I suspect most people are comparing the access they have to not having had access before though, not to canadian access

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

#155

Post by henrikf » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:10 AM UTC

If I understand the methodology correctly this study seems to penalize unlimited plans quite a lot. In the linked methodology pdf they specify that the price for 1 GB of data for unlimited plans is calculated by dividing by the average data usage per user but limited plans are divided by the limit.

For example in Finland almost all plans are unlimited and users regularly use a lot of mobile data. Average monthly use is 34 GB and median 6 GB [0]. The cheapest mobile plan I can find is 9.90€/month for unlimited data at 1 Mbit/s [1]. Dividing it by 6 GB median data use gives $1.95 for 1 GB which is close to the their reported minimum price of $1.75. However if this plan was instead marketed with 100 GB monthly cap they would have divided it by 100 GB instead giving a much cheaper price.

[0] https://blog.telegeography.com/finns-lead-the-way-in-mobile-... [1] https://elisa.fi/kauppa/puhelinliittymat

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

#156

Post by ekianjo » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:13 AM UTC

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…

> 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.

Exact same thing happened in France when the opened up phone operators for regular lines (not mobile). They made competitors rent the existing infrastructure and then compete on pricing/services. We went from paying for every call minute to unlimited phone plans very quickly.

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

#157

Post by 9nGQluzmnq3M » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:19 AM UTC

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

Running a telco is not that expensive. The problem is that building out the infrastructure in the first place is hugely expensive.

This is why most countries have only a few "real" operators that own and operate infra, and tons of virtual operators (MVNO) that run on top of others' gear.

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

#158

Post by frosted-flakes » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:19 AM UTC

skolsuper wrote: post #121

cco wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

miles? minutes? metres? My high school maths teacher would like a word

Metres, obviously. Miles and minutes have different acronyms.

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

#159

Post by cscurmudgeon » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:27 AM UTC

inetknght wrote: post #12

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?

Rent. American businesses love extracting rent.

Salaries are much higher in the US. Don’t reduce complex economics to simplistic sound bites.

Look up PPP.

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

#160

Post by guidedlight » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:32 AM UTC

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…

Yes, but you are clearly cherrypicking data.

1Gb of internet in Australia ($0.68) is fantastic value compared to 1Gb of internet in Canada ($12.55). Australia's mobile data network is competitive on quality, and is amongst the fastest in the world.