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Two Countries, Two Vastly Different Phone Bills

nytimes.com

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Re: Two Countries, Two Vastly Different Phone Bills

#61

Post by martinald »

chrismeller wrote: post #51
martinald wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same as the US surely? There's huge swathes of the US which has very limited cell coverage. Looking at a map, the majority of OR/ID/MT/ND/SD doesn't have cell coverage, not even 2G. Apparently more than 83% of the US population lives in urban environments, compared to 73% in Russia. In fact, it's more than the UK too (80%).

To some extent, definitely. But America has always had the "open road" attitude. I think it's a lot more likely for a family to take a road trip to the Grand Canyon one summer, across several of those states, than for a Russian family to take a road trip to... hell, I can't find a city in the middle of Siberia on Google Maps, but you get the idea.

I'm sure the Russian roads have coverage too. You're not going to cover places where there is no need to. Many of these areas will not have seen people in decades in Russia I'm sure.

Anyway, it's a moot point. Rural areas are cheap to cover. Stick a macrocell up, microwave some backhaul in from another tower (until you hit the nearest fibre line) and jobs done. Cities are much much more expensive - costs more to put the masts up, need many many more masts and complex frequency allocations, buildings blocking the line of sight, etc. I'm sure that rural capex/opex is a very small percentage of Verizon/AT&Ts budget compared to all the thousands of new 4G sites they're putting up in urban areas.

Re: Two Countries, Two Vastly Different Phone Bills

#64

Post by mlucero »

__xtrimsky wrote: post #63

I pay 45$ / month for everything unlimited with Straight Talk (uses AT&T's coverage). And my wife pays 30$ for 100 minutes, unlimited text and 5GB data with T-Mobile. even 67$ I find that pretty expensive.

I am switching to that 30$ plan as a result of this post. Just saved me half the cost of my monthly bill. Thanks!

Re: Two Countries, Two Vastly Different Phone Bills

#65

Post by __xtrimsky »

aceofspades19 wrote: post #42
Falkon1313 wrote: post #4

I've always gone with the no-contract plans. I pay $35/month for the same phone and unlimited service that one of my family members is paying $100/month for. Really I don't see the point of the contract plans.

I got my nexus 4 for 'free' on a contract and even if I bought it outright and got on the cheapest plan with roughly the same features, I would've only saved $5 a month. 5 * 24( 2 year contract) is only 120 so by going on a contract I saved at least $100 on the cost of my phone. If you are smart you can save money by going on a contract.

I don't think you researched well enough, 5$ saving is nothing. tell us which plans you were deciding between.

For example Straight Talk, is 45$ / month, everything unlimited. And you can use either AT&T's coverage, either T-Mobile's or Verizon's (and their phone too).

And that's for everything unlimited, you can find cheaper if you don't need unlimited.

Re: Two Countries, Two Vastly Different Phone Bills

#66

Post by chrisBob »

Falkon1313 wrote: post #4

I've always gone with the no-contract plans. I pay $35/month for the same phone and unlimited service that one of my family members is paying $100/month for. Really I don't see the point of the contract plans.

Can you share what plan you use? From my experience no-contract plans usually have some issues like no off network roaming. Maybe this isn't a deal breaker, but it is a different level of service.

Re: Two Countries, Two Vastly Different Phone Bills

#67

Post by aceofspades19 »

__xtrimsky wrote: post #65
aceofspades19 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got my nexus 4 for 'free' on a contract and even if I bought it outright and got on the cheapest plan with roughly the same features, I would've only saved $5 a month. 5 * 24( 2 year contract) is only 120 so by going on a contract I saved at least $100 on the cost of my phone. If you are smart you can save money by going on a contract.

I don't think you researched well enough, 5$ saving is nothing. tell us which plans you were deciding between. For example Straight Talk, is 45$ / month, everything unlimited. And you can use either AT&T's coverage, either T-Mobile's or Verizon's (and their phone too). And that's for everything unlimited, you can find cheaper if you don't need unlimited.

Well I'm in Canada so straight talk is unavailable. As far as I know there is no provider that offers unlimited plans for everything at a reasonable cost. I'm with Fido and my plan is $45/month with 200 mb data, 200 weekday minutes canada-wide, unlimited evenings and weekends, unlimited SMS and MMS. The cheapest plan they offer that includes data is $39/month. The cheapest plan period that isn't prepaid that I've seen from any canadian provider is $35/month. So if I spent $10 less a month which is $288 for 2 years, it would just barely cover the cost of the phone and I wouldn't have any data either. So in the best case I wouldn't save any money by buying my own phone.
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