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As an American I was shocked at how cheap cell phone plans already are in Europe. You can get a great 4GB data SIM for like 10 euros, where it would easily be s

by tdeck 9y ago

As an American I was shocked at how cheap cell phone plans already are in Europe. You can get a great 4GB data SIM for like 10 euros, where it would easily be several times that in the US. My Verizon unlimited plan is $86/month per person, and even that is a special thing that's grandfathered in.

Sami_Lehtinen 9y ago
Unlimited 50 Mbit/s is 17,90€/mo and 100 Mbit/s is 24,90€/mo. Of course with unlimited full speed tethering. I found it utterly ridiculous that in US tethering is limited or there are transfer limits. Users easily use 30, 50 or 100 Gbytes / mo. Low limits make torrenting and snapschat, music streaming, Youtube and Snapshat really annoying to use. In Finland average users uses over 10 Gbytes/mo. You can guess what kind of amounts the top 20% transfers based on Pareto principle. I usually recommend people to buy only one mobile Internet connection. It doesn't make any sense for "normal users" to buy anything else. 100 or 300 Mbit/s mobile, that's it. Yet 300 Mbit/s mobile is pretty expensive, 29,90€/mo (including tax and fees).
untog 9y ago
It's not so bad if you shop around. T-Mobile has a PAYG SIM card that is $30/month for 5GB of data, unlimited texts and 100 minutes of calls. I suspect part of the difference in price is due to geography - the US has vast, vast areas of unpopulated land that people still want to receive cell coverage in. Europe has less of that. It would be interesting to see the customer response to a new US network that I'd cheaper but only covers major metro areas.
- asmosoinio 9y ago
  USA has twice the population density of Finland, for which Sami_Lehtinen quotes prices in the sibling comment. So it's not that, or not just that at least.
- tdeck 9y ago
  Unfortunately T-Mobile has a noticeably bad network, and I just can't bite the bullet and put up with it. Whenever one of my friends is having trouble getting signal I ask what their carrier is, and it's always T-Mobile.
Maarten88 9y ago
> My Verizon unlimited plan is $86/month You Americans get royally screwed. With all that money they will pay off Yahoo, the FCC, congress and still make a huge profit. They don't even have to invest much in networks, because there's hardly any competition. However they will invest in mobile Ad technology, to get even more money out of you.

by tdeck 9y ago

Sami_Lehtinen 9y ago

Unlimited 50 Mbit/s is 17,90€/mo and 100 Mbit/s is 24,90€/mo. Of course with unlimited full speed tethering. I found it utterly ridiculous that in US tethering is limited or there are transfer limits. Users easily use 30, 50 or 100 Gbytes / mo. Low limits make torrenting and snapschat, music streaming, Youtube and Snapshat really annoying to use. In Finland average users uses over 10 Gbytes/mo. You can guess what kind of amounts the top 20% transfers based on Pareto principle. I usually recommend people to buy only one mobile Internet connection. It doesn't make any sense for "normal users" to buy anything else. 100 or 300 Mbit/s mobile, that's it. Yet 300 Mbit/s mobile is pretty expensive, 29,90€/mo (including tax and fees).

untog 9y ago

It's not so bad if you shop around. T-Mobile has a PAYG SIM card that is $30/month for 5GB of data, unlimited texts and 100 minutes of calls. I suspect part of the difference in price is due to geography - the US has vast, vast areas of unpopulated land that people still want to receive cell coverage in. Europe has less of that. It would be interesting to see the customer response to a new US network that I'd cheaper but only covers major metro areas.

asmosoinio 9y ago
USA has twice the population density of Finland, for which Sami_Lehtinen quotes prices in the sibling comment. So it's not that, or not just that at least.
tdeck 9y ago
Unfortunately T-Mobile has a noticeably bad network, and I just can't bite the bullet and put up with it. Whenever one of my friends is having trouble getting signal I ask what their carrier is, and it's always T-Mobile.

Maarten88 9y ago

> My Verizon unlimited plan is $86/month You Americans get royally screwed. With all that money they will pay off Yahoo, the FCC, congress and still make a huge profit. They don't even have to invest much in networks, because there's hardly any competition. However they will invest in mobile Ad technology, to get even more money out of you.