I would like to point out that the following part of the article is not true (she was probably getting confused with broadband):
"Britain has forced companies to lease their networks to competitors at cost"
Two Countries, Two Vastly Different Phone Bills
31–40 of 67 posts
Re: Two Countries, Two Vastly Different Phone Bills
#32I pay about $75 for 2 gigabytes from Verizon, so I don't know where these numbers are coming from.
Re: Two Countries, Two Vastly Different Phone Bills
#33Just curious, but is it possible to give the costs for comparable contracts in other countries, too?
Italy is considered close to a third world country BUT as i can see it provides cheaper and better connectivity.
No contract, unlimited data, unlimited minutes and unlimited texts (but no phone): 10€/month. On a 30 months contract with everything unlimited and an iPhone 5s will costa about 35€/month. Which means abput 50$/month.
Re: Two Countries, Two Vastly Different Phone Bills
#34I pay about $75 for 2 gigabytes from Verizon, so I don't know where these numbers are coming from.
Do you get unlimited texts and calls? Because without that the UK price drops to £15/month.
Re: Two Countries, Two Vastly Different Phone Bills
#35Just curious, but is it possible to give the costs for comparable contracts in other countries, too?
I'm paying 20€/month in France, for unlimited calls (to France and a large part of the world) and texts as well as 3 GB data (20 GB over 4G, but my phone can't use that). A phone isn't included in the contract (the contract can be stopped anytime) but my provider (Free) also sells phones on credit, say an iPhone 5s for 49€ one time payment and then 16€/month over 24 months. That makes a close equivalent of the US con…
Also noteworthy: you won't be charged if you use more than 3GB/month of data, only the download speed is reduced
Re: Two Countries, Two Vastly Different Phone Bills
#36Three is awesome. I actually tether through my phone at work because getting ~10Mbps to myself over 3G beats sharing a 10Mbps leased line amongst about 20 offices. I always have YouTube or Twitch on in the background, etc, and never run into any problems. I pay something like £20 a month. To balance though, historically Internet access options were not good.. I was on dialup until about 2003, and then pretty horrific…
Other things about Three:
* The monthly contracts (and higher value pay-as-you-go top-ups) come with "Feel at Home" roaming -- in about 12 countries worldwide you can use your inclusive minutes, texts and data with no international roaming fees, i.e. you get that all-you-can-eat data overseas. Countries listed include the United States; on one recent 2-week trip to the USA I was able to use my iPhone for data as if I was at home with no added charges.
* British phone tariffs do not charge you for receiving text messages.
* The all-you-can-eat is capped (small print) at a "fair usage" of 25 Gb/month. Tethering is disabled while roaming overseas on "feel at home", but not prevented at home.
* If you buy a smartphone from Three, they'll unlock it at any time, for free, on request.
* In non "feel-at-home" countries they'll give you 24 hours' data (capped at 500Mb) for £5. Not as good, but better than typical international roaming fees (at £0.5/Mb in the EU and up to £3/Mb outside the EU).
Those of us who are used to this kind of cell service boggle in amazement about how backward the US carriers are.
The final irony? Three is pretty backward and expensive compared to what Estonians get from their cellcos ... the UK is by no means the best world-wide, it's just a handy point of reference.
Re: Two Countries, Two Vastly Different Phone Bills
#37I would think that one of the "several factors involved" may dwarf regulation: area. The UK operators have 94,000 square miles to cover while US operators have a little over 3.1 million, just in the lower 48. Obviously no single carrier is ever going to cover 100% of either country (and in the US in in particular they don't come even close), but the simple size of the problem in the US drives their infrastructure cos…
I doubt that area is a main factor. If that would be it then Russia would have higher prices and less subscribers, yet SIM card penetration approaches 170% (see http://www.budde.com.au/Research/Russia-Mobile-Market-Insigh... ).
You're not taking into account population density. Russia's population is very heavily concentrated in relatively few areas... Not much need to blanket all of Siberia with cell towers.
Re: Two Countries, Two Vastly Different Phone Bills
#38I've always found it funny that it is cheaper to use my UK monthly rolling contract in America (free roaming yay) than it is to have an American contract - completely bizarre.
Which contract is that, and from which operator?
Re: Two Countries, Two Vastly Different Phone Bills
#39[deleted]
Re: Two Countries, Two Vastly Different Phone Bills
#40Three is awesome. I actually tether through my phone at work because getting ~10Mbps to myself over 3G beats sharing a 10Mbps leased line amongst about 20 offices. I always have YouTube or Twitch on in the background, etc, and never run into any problems. I pay something like £20 a month. To balance though, historically Internet access options were not good.. I was on dialup until about 2003, and then pretty horrific…
Other things about Three: * The monthly contracts (and higher value pay-as-you-go top-ups) come with "Feel at Home" roaming -- in about 12 countries worldwide you can use your inclusive minutes, texts and data with no international roaming fees, i.e. you get that all-you-can-eat data overseas . Countries listed include the United States; on one recent 2-week trip to the USA I was able to use my iPhone for data as if…
There is no 25GB limit on the AYCE. I've pushed nearly 500GB one month tethering on 4G (my old apartment had very slow upload and could get about 20mbit up on 4G - great for server restorations and bulk data transfers) and many times over 25GB and have never got a letter.
From the Three 'small print': So in essence there is a limit of how much data you can actually consume which is up to 1000GB. All this means that you can have absolute peace of mind and enjoy all the internet you need on your smartphone, without worrying. Basically, the limit is about 1TB/month.