Live data from Hacker News

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

cable.co.uk

271–280 of 415 posts

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

#271
This is a little off-tangent but as a newly repatriated Dane, can another Dane explain to me how we manage to both have a mega-monopoly telco in TDC and yet have such good prices on internet and phone plans?

The only ISPs available to me at my home here are all wholly owned subsidiaries of TDC: none of the others want to touch my address. That sounds like exactly the "any color you want so long as its black" choice I so enjoyed in the US.

How does Denmark do this? What is the special sauce?

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

#272
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…

ex-Israeli here (currently living in Portugal). This was perhaps the biggest step that was take to reduce the prices in Israel, but not the only one. Other notable ones:

1. Ban plan cancellation fees - You can cancel your plan anytime you want without any fees, always. There isn't even an option to choose between plans with cancellation fees and without, it's just not allowed. 2. Reducing the complexity to move to a different carrier - All you have to do is tell the new carrier and they will do the rest, and you get to keep the number if you choose to

Unfortunately in Portugal cancellation fees are still a thing, I think this is a big factor for competition

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

#273

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.

"Unpaid labor to work for Google" a trite, popular meme, but your compensation is access to the site you want access to.

You can thank bad actors for that arrangement.

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

#274
post #266
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Italian here too, I pay 5.99 €/month for 30gb (never really experienced caps). Iliad is the provider. SMS texts and calls are also free and unlimited. Iliad is pretty great. Given that by law there are both a minimum number of players and incentives for the entry of a new players, Iliad managed to get pretty awesome pretty fast.

I think I have the same plan. I have to say the only thing I'm missing (and I would gladly pay 2 euros more for) is global (or at least EU) free SMS while not roaming.

Free global messaging isn’t gonna happen. It’s not like internal messaging which is essentially free, but if you send a message to Congo, they want real money to deliver the message.

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

#275
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…

I used to have unlimited 512kbps "broadband" via public tel (BSNL, Phone line), up until 2013. I moved to delhi and as a broke university student, I'd gone through incremental upgrades with cable, fiber, wi-max connections, and have seen it stablise.

I moved out in 2017, but I'm glad for the LTE access that my parents can use from the same tiny city (with DSL Line, now at 1mbps as an alternative). It's great! Indeed, lots left to do about other issues, but I think we get to be happy about this particular development.

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

#276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which operator ? I'm interested.

If you get the right winback or operator attack promotions you can get amazing deals with the major MNOs.

I think you should specify that when making wild claims as if they’re the norms. Even that “6.99 for 100 GB” is unfounded currently.

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

#277
This article is terrible.

It’s a classic example of garbage in, garbage out.

The analysis is egregiously wrong, the methodology terrible and the source data isn’t available.

This really belongs in the trash bin.

EDIT: I dare downvoters to speak up. It’s not like I’m wrong.

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

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ex-Israeli here (currently living in Berlin). It's truly amazing how cheap mobile internet access became in Israel. I'm guessing home broadband as well. Here in Germany it feels like a cartel. Prices are pretty homogeneous and quite expensive (I pay 10EUR/4weeks for 2.5Gb + 200 call min or SMS, pay-as-you-go). The home broadband is worse in terms of competition. Contracts are typically 24 months or more with draconia…

Just as a tip, you can get cheaper in Germany. I have 7GB with unlimited calls+sms for ~8€ per month, and no tie-in so I can terminate monthly. This was a Black Friday offer from PremiumSIM, but you can find other discounts providers too.

Yeah, there are some cheaper options, but switching is a hassle, especially if you want to keep your number. $14 for 400Gb is an order of magnitude cheaper.
Post reply on HN