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)

#361

Post by trm42 » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:53 PM UTC

siikanen98 wrote: post #242

I live on Finland and I've got unlimited everything for 16,9€/month. This includes calls, sms and 200mbps LTE data. There is no data caps (not even throttling, since that would be against the law) and I've had months with 400+gb data transferred, no issues.

Yep, the price published for Finland feels really weird. The operators are nowadays selling even even unlimited data prepaids for 20-30 euros or 1 eur per day. This of course makes gigabyte price comparison a bit hard as it depends how much you download.

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

#362

Post by neya » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 4:30 PM UTC

JimDabell wrote: post #351

neya wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, those are for tourists. I am not a tourist. I've lived there long enough to know what the rates are. This is from Singtel Hi menu: https://i.imgur.com/z6WmqYx.png Notice it says "Data plans" - They give you only data and claim to give you free incoming only for 20 days as a bonus. That's not even a bonus, in India, you pay nothing for incoming, at least on the Airtel plan I mentioned. Also, about your point on…

> I suggest you try 4G somewhere near Toa Payoh, Bishan, Bedok or even some places within Paya Lebar. I’m with Singtel and don’t have any problems in those places. I even had 4G on Pulau Ubin today. Singtel has a $25/20GB plan for locals, $10/1GB isn’t really representative of typical plans.

I agree, Pulau Ubin coverage is pretty good, but that isn't indicative of the rest of the places. I'm a consultant and I travel quite a lot around the city.

My criteria isn't just having 4G, but able to actually use it in decent speeds. This is where Singtel sucks for me - the 4G logo will show on your phone, but pages will never load due to poor connectivity, even with 5 bars. I had this issue across three phones - iPhone, Sony and Samsung.

Singtel ALSO seems to do lot of throttling on videos depending on where in the city you're as well.

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

#363

Post by RantyDave » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 4:41 PM UTC

nisse72 wrote: post #95

RantyDave wrote: post #29

Yeah, this isn't right. I pay (New Zealand) a hundred and something a month for 100GB 4G or 5G if you can get it.

Sounds a bit high? Vodafone NZ offers 300 GB of 4G broadband for $73 at the moment.

That's just broadband though. My phone is my sole internet connection these days. We live in the future.

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

#364

Post by znpy » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 5:14 PM UTC

mumblerino wrote: post #274

carlob wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Meh, as long as I have internet connectivity I don't need texts. Iliad includes 2gb free in roaming mode, as gp correctly pointed out (I forgot about that, but it was very handy when I was in Leipzig during last CCC).

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

#365

Post by als0 » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 5:14 PM UTC

7ewis wrote: post #346

qalmakka wrote: post #27

I'm Italian and I pay ~9 euros per month for 130 GB of uncapped 4G mobile Internet, so I can't really complain about it. Some new offers I've seen are as low as 6.99 for 100 GB + infinite calls. A few days ago I told this to a friend of mine who lives in the UK and he was shocked because he pays a lot more for like 2GB a month. I guess healthy competition can really be good for consumers when it works as it is suppos…

It depends entirely on the plan you get. I'm from the UK and pay £5 for unlimited data, which admittedly is better than most plans here.

Which plan/network do you have?

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

#366

Post by ezoe » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 5:24 PM UTC

It's useless. Some countries has strict data cap. The first 1 GB may be cheap and bandwidth is good, but you can't keep using it with the advertised bandwidth even for 1 hour. The data cap can be reached less than 30 minutes and you are stuck with low bandwidth for a month.

I really don't like the business model of mobile network. They shall be banned to advertise a few hundred of Mbps. What's good at 100+ Mbps when transfer mere 9 GB within 3 days window results bandwidth restriction of 1 Mbps. It's a fraud.

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

#367

Post by Tijdreiziger » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 5:36 PM UTC

amingilani wrote: post #347

Scapeghost wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It happens often on Reddit, which is really bad with their shadowbanning and associating you with other accounts that you have nothing to do with, probably because crappy ISPs reuse IP addresses for multiple users.

Some ISPs also use a carrier-grade NAT so multiple users share an IP address.

Isn't this almost universally the case for mobile data?

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

#368

Post by frosted-flakes » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 5:40 PM UTC

amingilani wrote: post #358

frosted-flakes wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metres, obviously. Miles and minutes have different acronyms.

> "due to the storm that forced them to either take days off or travel >30m [metres] to find places with internet." Is it "travel" if you walk 30 metres? :)

I was wondering that too, but it says metres, and I'm not one to claim that another is lying. :)

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

#369

Post by Tijdreiziger » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 5:43 PM UTC

seanalltogether wrote: post #75

qalmakka wrote: post #27

I'm Italian and I pay ~9 euros per month for 130 GB of uncapped 4G mobile Internet, so I can't really complain about it. Some new offers I've seen are as low as 6.99 for 100 GB + infinite calls. A few days ago I told this to a friend of mine who lives in the UK and he was shocked because he pays a lot more for like 2GB a month. I guess healthy competition can really be good for consumers when it works as it is suppos…

O2 in the UK offers 2GB for £12 a month as its lowest plan, but it's a really dumb plan to be on since you can get 100GB for only £20 a month.

Not really dumb if you only use a GB or so a month anyway.

I have a 7GB plan despite using less than 1GB a month, because that's the next plan up after 1GB (and I like to have some wiggle room above 1GB)

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

#370

Post by Tijdreiziger » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 5:47 PM UTC

thom wrote: post #261

I worked on a project for a major telco who regularly struggled with customer bill shock. Business travellers would go abroad, run up bills without knowing it (literally tens of thousands of pounds) and then complain that the provider never warned them or set a cap. Often the provider would have to eat the cost (it wasn’t massive markup, these were just the underlying trunk costs). We spent a long time building alert…

For this reason I'm with a telco that just locks me out when I reach my cap. The only thing I can do at that point is purchase an add-on package (which is good for the rest of the month) and then the internet is turned back on. When outside the EU, it locks me out by default unless I purchase an international data package.