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

cable.co.uk

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

#71

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.

Agree - these numbers are way off and to be honest are pretty difficult to calculate. There are a number of 'unlimited' mobile data plans and at the same time you can still get charged 50c per MB ($500/GB) on some pay-as-you-go plans.

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

#72
post #58

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…

Does it call out IRC servers specifically? Or any type of server?

It probably does, and you'll find lots of ISPs, VPS and hosting providers also forbid IRC servers. The main reason for the blanket ban is that once upon a time (and perhaps still) IRC servers were widely used for malicious bot command and control systems and it's easier to just forbid them at all than pay people to spend their time sorting the good guys from the bad guys.

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

#73
post #3

I 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?

Beyond the usual arguments about "the US is big", poor competition is probably a big part of it. US telcos have a lot of lockin, with very long contract lengths, poor acceptance of prepaid plans, and "family plans" being common. All of this makes it less likely that people will move network, so there's less incentive for telcos to actually compete on price. EDIT: On the "US is big" point, it's notable that pricing do…

Having lived in a couple of developing Asian countries, there’s a few obvious reasons that the services would be cheaper. For starters, everything about doing business is cheaper, especially salaries. Unreliable service is completely normal. There’s also additional income streams for service providers. Getting spam SMS tailored to your nearest cell tower (like special offers for nearby restaurants) is completely normal. HTTP content is much more common place, and it all has ISP injected advertisements. Service coverage is also much worse, tourist areas have the best coverage, followed by business districts.

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

#74
post #3

I 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?

A lot of it is that people pay $15 for the 1 GB in the US.

(and $80-100 for the big bucket)

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

#75

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.

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

#76
post #3

I 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

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

#77
post #58

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…

Does it call out IRC servers specifically? Or any type of server?

You know, I just checked, and they seem to have been removed those references. But from what I recall the reference was explicitly IRC. I remember thinking, "Why IRC?"

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

#78

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…

Surely, they can't be MITMing HTTPS traffic without Cloudflare's blessing? Services not being available by region, that can be a bummer but that's not really a problem on internet service provider as such. Also, I am surprised that one more country is building a GFW.

There are a lot of reports of certificate issues (on Cloudflare) in Pakistan as well as Iran, with most of them likely because of censorship.

https://community.cloudflare.com/search?q=Pakistan

https://community.cloudflare.com/search?q=Iran

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

#79

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…

Important point. I was talking to my brother in India. Last month internet service was down in their building for 4 days. Unlike folks who go apoplectic over this, he understands that 3rd world prices do not come with first world service quality in practice.

Most people do not have an option to move across continents just because somethings are cheaper there. And internet service is one small part of overall things one has do deal with in their daily lives.

Another way to cheaper price is that most jobs done in first world is to be outsourced to much cheaper places, which is happening. Or push lot of middle class jobs to subsistence level jobs, which is also happening.

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

#80

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…

Surely, they can't be MITMing HTTPS traffic without Cloudflare's blessing? Services not being available by region, that can be a bummer but that's not really a problem on internet service provider as such. Also, I am surprised that one more country is building a GFW.

It would be possible for an ISP to MITM the traffic between Cloudflare and the origin server since it can be configured to be done via unencrypted HTTP or non-trusted certs on HTTPS (flexible SSL). See https://medium.com/@karthikb351/airtel-is-sniffing-and-censo... for an example of Cloudflare serving a MITM notice page for pirate bay.
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