UK and $13 for 30gb 4g on a rolling monthly contract but there are a lot of more expensive plans out there and people don't switch as often as they could.
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)
#252The cost of 1GB doesn't seem to take into account the entrance to having a line in the first place. I might not pay more than 1€ a GB but I still have to pay 10€ to be on the network and I can't only buy 1GB, I have to buy 2, 10 or 50 or 100. The "base plan" is where the ISPs get you. That plus data is just the modern day rents for tech companies. It doesn't really make sense to compare data prices when the telecoms are charging varying entrance rates.
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#253It would be interesting to see the numbers relative to purchasing power parity. For an ordinary Indian person 0.07 usd might still be relatively expensive
Thats 5.25 Indian Rupee, even Beggars would earn more than that in a day. Hourly minimum wage is 30cents, which as sad as it is, is still 4x the cost of 1GB data. I would argue cost of smartphones as a bigger deterrent. While in most countries an okay smartphone would cost 20x the cost of a GB of data, in India its roughly 50x
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#254The Great Reversal -How America Gave Up on Free Markets by
Thomas Philippon https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674237544
The Economist: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/12/12/a...
Article by Philippon: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/europe-not...
"Chapter 8 How European Markets Became Free" Is funny story how EU accidentally tricked itself into creating competitive markets for products and services.
EU governments have tradition of protecting their own economies and shaping their industrial policy as they have done in the past. Distrust between countries led to the only working solution: independent regulators and fair markets. Ruhr Authority in 1949 was already independent from from the control of any European country but it took several decades for Europe to create broad, independent, and powerful regulators.
And the results are clear: EU has state aid rules for example, the US does not. In the US corporations have incentive to shop around for subsidies, pitting one state against another and leading to inefficient outcomes.
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#255The price should be calculated for ~10GB, or better yet 50 or even 100GB, as the prices tend to be lower the more GB you pay for, which becomes really noticeable with "unlimited" packages.
Some countries/networks have true unlimited 4G, some give you a set amount of GB at full speed, after which it drops to something barely usable (128-1024 Kbps).
I could use ~1TB/month on 4G on Three UK for ~40 Euros. That's unbeatable in Europe to my knowledge.
Never got higher than ~300 GB/month though - even at that price per GB only some Eastern European networks become competitive.
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#256Not 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.
I would say in England £20 gets you roughly 20gb of good quality internet, but there are lots of plans that will sell you way more for way less with poor coverage and throttling.
The post implies that they found a rate which was $2 for 20gb in the U.K. in their cheapest tarrif - which I assume was some sort of ‘unlimited capped at 200gb for £15’ style deal which would be heavily throtttled.
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
In Canada, we're mostly limited to Bell, Rogers, Telus and Shaw, along with some other provincial crown corporations. Our geography might cause a slight increase in costs, but other than that, limited choice in the market and high barrier to entry keeps our fees high I think.
When Shaw purchased Freedom, I was optimistic that they would put a serious amount of money into building a sufficient number of rooftop, monopole and tower LTE last mile access sites to be serious competition to Bell, Telus and Rogers. Sadly this has not been the case. The network coverage even in the major metro areas of Vancouver and Toronto is very poor compared to the others.
I think Shaw sees much better ROI from their last-mile captive DOCSIS3/DOCSIS3.1 cable customers. Many of whom are on places where the local telco is years away from doing a real GPON FTTH overbuild. So it's 150Mbps+ DOCSIS3 service options vs 10-15Mbps ADSL2+ on long loop length copper.
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#258I 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?
Purchasing power parity. Median incomes in the US are far more than 15x what they are in countries like India, Pakistan, or Indonesia. Median income India - $2k Median income USA - $60k
While I agree with your logic, a small correction: for India the data you found would probably be per capita and for USA its per household (which I think constitutes 3 or 4 members).
So something like 10x difference
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you watched Motonomad? I guess Adam Riemann was lucky with the timing being allowed into Sinai.
A motorbike is usually OK on the Sinai. Funny enough, for the Sinai they don't care about me being kidnapped, they care about my Jeep being kidnapped and used by ISIS against them. So a good vehicle like my Jeep is not allowed across the Sinai, but they don't care too much (or at least you can talk your way through) on a motorbike.
Interesting!
Re: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries (Feb 2020)
#260If 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…
We also have "unlimited" plans in Spain, however at +40€ typically, and under "fair use" use clauses.