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I can fly to Riga, Latvia or many other places. Pay $5 for a SIM card (with some amount of base call/data credit) and use it when I want or need it. But in US y

I can fly to Riga, Latvia or many other places. Pay $5 for a SIM card (with some amount of base call/data credit) and use it when I want or need it. But in US you are charged if you use or don't use your service. Basically it's like your electric or water meter running even if you use electricity or not. I hope Chamath will be able to solve that. Have a network like other places in the world. Where I buy a SIM card and fill it up when I need it and if I don't use my phone for a week, I won't be charged when not using it.

stanleydrew 11y ago
We should talk. I'm working on a product that pretty much exactly matches what you described. And I've used the infinitely-running electric meter analogy in the past to point out how the current market offerings don't make sense. Would love to have you try it out when it's ready. Send me an email if interested (in my profile).
- salimmadjd 11y ago
  @stanleydrew email sent!
mikeash 11y ago
There are lots of prepaid, pay-as-you-go options in the US too. They may not be as good or as cheap (this wouldn't surprise me at all) but the US isn't exclusively monthly plans.
- JustSomeNobody 11y ago
  A lot of pay as you go plans still expire monthly. I can't easily buy 1GB of data and sit on it for a year.
  - stanleydrew 11y ago
    See my sibling comment. We are working on exactly this, but it's not really public yet. Send me an email if you're willing to help us test it in the next couple months.
  - sjg007 11y ago
    Some allow you to prepay ~$100 and get a year before it expires.
mindslight 11y ago
The mobile infrastructure has a hefty upkeep fee, regardless of usage. Many other utilities have monthly base charges just for the connection. Of course now that people have more than one device the number of "lines" isn't fixed. So it does seem ridiculous that multiple devices means paying multiple upkeeps for the same infrastructure (disregarding the bandwidth used by control messages). But given the glaring security issues with common cell radio chipsets, having multiple devices directly on the cell network is an antifeature! The same communication can be accomplished with a dedicated hotspot or a phone that tethers for everything else. Data is data - what is the advantage of making yourself more legible to the cell network?

stanleydrew 11y ago

We should talk. I'm working on a product that pretty much exactly matches what you described. And I've used the infinitely-running electric meter analogy in the past to point out how the current market offerings don't make sense. Would love to have you try it out when it's ready. Send me an email if interested (in my profile).

salimmadjd 11y ago
@stanleydrew email sent!

mikeash 11y ago

There are lots of prepaid, pay-as-you-go options in the US too. They may not be as good or as cheap (this wouldn't surprise me at all) but the US isn't exclusively monthly plans.

JustSomeNobody 11y ago
A lot of pay as you go plans still expire monthly. I can't easily buy 1GB of data and sit on it for a year.
- stanleydrew 11y ago
  See my sibling comment. We are working on exactly this, but it's not really public yet. Send me an email if you're willing to help us test it in the next couple months.
- sjg007 11y ago
  Some allow you to prepay ~$100 and get a year before it expires.

mindslight 11y ago

The mobile infrastructure has a hefty upkeep fee, regardless of usage. Many other utilities have monthly base charges just for the connection. Of course now that people have more than one device the number of "lines" isn't fixed. So it does seem ridiculous that multiple devices means paying multiple upkeeps for the same infrastructure (disregarding the bandwidth used by control messages). But given the glaring security issues with common cell radio chipsets, having multiple devices directly on the cell network is an antifeature! The same communication can be accomplished with a dedicated hotspot or a phone that tethers for everything else. Data is data - what is the advantage of making yourself more legible to the cell network?