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There are affordable plans in Canada. It's just that they aren't really advertised. I have unlimited Canadian talk+text + 2GB for $35/month. Without the data (j

There are affordable plans in Canada. It's just that they aren't really advertised. I have unlimited Canadian talk+text + 2GB for $35/month. Without the data (just unlimited domestic text+voice) it's $20/month. This plan isn't public...for some reason my wife got emailed about it and she got signed up. They allowed me to sign up too, even though they hadn't notified me about it. I think these plans are used to entice people on PAYG onto a plan, so they don't advertise them to everyone. For roaming data+voice I use a BNEsim e-sim, which works very well.

quirino 4y ago
Maybe you're not aware how much cheaper data is in other countries. Here in Brazil, unlimited Whatsapp + Voice + 5Gb costs 8$/month. Surely there are many factors to this but those Canadian prices still sound insane to me. This website (https://www.cable.co.uk/mobiles/worldwide-data-pricing/#pricing https://www.cable.co.uk/mobiles/worldwide-data-pricing/#pric...) lists Canada as having 50x more expensive data than Italy for instance.
- cldellow 4y ago
  Man, as a Canadian, I hate being put in the position of defending our wireless monopolies. But here goes. That website seems... not great? I think you got a 50x ratio by dividing the average prices of $0.12 (Italy) and $5.94 (Canada). That appears to be a median...but I'd like to know how they chose the plans they used for the calculation. For example, Canada's maximum price is given as $46.02/GB. Perhaps such a plan is technically available, but I really doubt someone is using it for data, so it seems bizarre to include it in this data set. For cheapest prices, they cite $0.05/GB for Italy and $1.66/GB for Canada. But off the top of my head, Rogers, which is the #1 telco in Canada, offers $0.74/GB. Seems... odd that it didn't make it into this dataset. (And hey, I would like to know where I can pay $0.05 to get a GB/data in Italy. Full speed? On a good network?) I pay $29/mo for unlimited data in Canada. Granted - with caveats! It gets throttled after the first 6 GB. I wonder if this would be counted as $4.83/GB in this survey? Their methodology PDF is unclear.
  - quirino 4y ago
    Fair enough, I reckoned the methodology on the website probably wasn't the best, and $/GB is a pretty bad metric to begin with. I meant it mostly as an example of how there can be an order of magnitude of difference between prices, or at least half an order. I do concede my 50x number is probably very inaccurate in practice. My family's plan is 80$/month for unlimited data for 6 devices, throttled after something like 60GB between all of them. Unused data can be used on the next month. Not once have I worried about reaching any limits, even with frequent Netflix and YouTube on the go and panic downloading Spotify albums before getting on a flight.
  - paraselene_ 4y ago
    I'll pitch in my celluar plan for comparison (Taipei) Currently I'm paying around US$16/mo for unlimited LTE data with a major celluar provider here, and have been doing so for the past 4-5 years. (no, not unlimited with throttled cap, and with hotspot included) And with recent 5G plans, unlimited plans (with 50GBs of unthrottled hotspot) can be had for effectively less than $30 a month, or even lower if you consider rebates for buying a phone on contract with them. North American's celluar plans just seem so expensive.
    - cldellow 4y ago
      Oh, yeah, NA's plans are expensive, no argument there. Just not 50x more expensive.
- nonethewiser 4y ago
  Brazil's median _household_ income is also $17k. Canada's is $77k.
jychang 4y ago
In the USA, unlimited talk/text with 2GB data is $14/month with Tello. $8/month without data. $29/month with unlimited data.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- cpncrunch 4y ago
  Yes, I'm not defending Canada's high rates. It does indeed have much higher data rates than anywhere else, as can be seen on the BNEsim rates for various countries. I was just pointing out that you can get much cheaper rates than the advertised plans if you dig a little.
zarzavat 4y ago
If $17 per GB is the affordable plan, what is the unaffordable plan?! I pay <$2 per GB in the UK, and I think that's extortionate.
- nonethewiser 4y ago
  Yes, but the UK is also smaller than Oregon.
  - beebeepka 4y ago
    How much is that in "libraries of congress"?
tokai 4y ago
That's the secrete good offer plan? Its extremely expensive. The same price in the Nordic countries would give you at least 20GB data and free roaming in all of EU.

quirino 4y ago

Maybe you're not aware how much cheaper data is in other countries. Here in Brazil, unlimited Whatsapp + Voice + 5Gb costs 8$/month. Surely there are many factors to this but those Canadian prices still sound insane to me. This website (https://www.cable.co.uk/mobiles/worldwide-data-pricing/#pricing https://www.cable.co.uk/mobiles/worldwide-data-pricing/#pric...) lists Canada as having 50x more expensive data than Italy for instance.

cldellow 4y ago
Man, as a Canadian, I hate being put in the position of defending our wireless monopolies. But here goes. That website seems... not great? I think you got a 50x ratio by dividing the average prices of $0.12 (Italy) and $5.94 (Canada). That appears to be a median...but I'd like to know how they chose the plans they used for the calculation. For example, Canada's maximum price is given as $46.02/GB. Perhaps such a plan is technically available, but I really doubt someone is using it for data, so it seems bizarre to include it in this data set. For cheapest prices, they cite $0.05/GB for Italy and $1.66/GB for Canada. But off the top of my head, Rogers, which is the #1 telco in Canada, offers $0.74/GB. Seems... odd that it didn't make it into this dataset. (And hey, I would like to know where I can pay $0.05 to get a GB/data in Italy. Full speed? On a good network?) I pay $29/mo for unlimited data in Canada. Granted - with caveats! It gets throttled after the first 6 GB. I wonder if this would be counted as $4.83/GB in this survey? Their methodology PDF is unclear.
- quirino 4y ago
  Fair enough, I reckoned the methodology on the website probably wasn't the best, and $/GB is a pretty bad metric to begin with. I meant it mostly as an example of how there can be an order of magnitude of difference between prices, or at least half an order. I do concede my 50x number is probably very inaccurate in practice. My family's plan is 80$/month for unlimited data for 6 devices, throttled after something like 60GB between all of them. Unused data can be used on the next month. Not once have I worried about reaching any limits, even with frequent Netflix and YouTube on the go and panic downloading Spotify albums before getting on a flight.
- paraselene_ 4y ago
  I'll pitch in my celluar plan for comparison (Taipei) Currently I'm paying around US$16/mo for unlimited LTE data with a major celluar provider here, and have been doing so for the past 4-5 years. (no, not unlimited with throttled cap, and with hotspot included) And with recent 5G plans, unlimited plans (with 50GBs of unthrottled hotspot) can be had for effectively less than $30 a month, or even lower if you consider rebates for buying a phone on contract with them. North American's celluar plans just seem so expensive.
  - cldellow 4y ago
    Oh, yeah, NA's plans are expensive, no argument there. Just not 50x more expensive.
nonethewiser 4y ago
Brazil's median _household_ income is also $17k. Canada's is $77k.

jychang 4y ago

In the USA, unlimited talk/text with 2GB data is $14/month with Tello. $8/month without data. $29/month with unlimited data.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
cpncrunch 4y ago
Yes, I'm not defending Canada's high rates. It does indeed have much higher data rates than anywhere else, as can be seen on the BNEsim rates for various countries. I was just pointing out that you can get much cheaper rates than the advertised plans if you dig a little.

zarzavat 4y ago

If $17 per GB is the affordable plan, what is the unaffordable plan?! I pay <$2 per GB in the UK, and I think that's extortionate.

nonethewiser 4y ago
Yes, but the UK is also smaller than Oregon.
- beebeepka 4y ago
  How much is that in "libraries of congress"?

tokai 4y ago

That's the secrete good offer plan? Its extremely expensive. The same price in the Nordic countries would give you at least 20GB data and free roaming in all of EU.