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"when my mobile net has run out"? Are Japanese mobile networks stuck in the 2010s? In Europe unlimited (or at as near as makes no difference) data has become so

by Liambp 3y ago

"when my mobile net has run out"? Are Japanese mobile networks stuck in the 2010s? In Europe unlimited (or at as near as makes no difference) data has become so ubiquitous that public wifi is more or less redundant.

pxx 3y ago
What in the world are you talking about? Taking a brief look at Airalo, it looks like it'd cost me $4-5 per gigabyte to buy an eSIM. I literally see no unlimited options on Amazon. Randomly navigating to telekom.de, I see a front page offer of €34.95 monthly for a five gigabyte plan with a 24 month contract term. orange.fr seems to do a little better with a €16.99 plan for 100 GB but it seems to be a promo rate and also requires an activation fee and a bank account statement, making it useless for tourists. Still, $5 is a lot cheaper than €16.99 even if you could get that rate. For €5 prepaid you get, I shit you not, 20 megabytes of data from Orange. https://boutique.orange.fr/vitrine/rechargements-mobile/mobicarte/#max https://boutique.orange.fr/vitrine/rechargements-mobile/mobi...
- johnwalkr 3y ago
  Wow 20MB isn’t even enough to open Google maps, find a restaurant and navigate to its menu. Unlimited plans usually throttle you these days too. I have €60 “unlimited” from orange.lu and after 250GB it throttles to 250kbps. At this speed hacker news is usable but not much else is. It’s €20 to add another 100GB. While waiting months for home internet to be installed I tethered to this and between WFH, gaming and streaming I usually had to top up 1-2 times per month.
- Liambp 3y ago
  Prepay is generally a better deal in UK and Ireland and often includes unlimited internet for about €20. Here is an example from Vodafone (not the cheapest by any means): https://n.vodafone.ie/shop/pay-as-you-go-plans.html https://n.vodafone.ie/shop/pay-as-you-go-plans.html €25 per month gets you unlimited data in Ireland and up to 30Gb in other EU countries including Germany. I have always thought it a bit odd that users with a monthly contract often pay more than "pay as you go pre-pay" but I think that is because it is mainly business and older people who opt for a monthly contract.
  - pxx 3y ago
    Did you really point out a plan that has sharply limited data in the EU as some sort of support for your original statement that nobody worries about data in the EU??
rjh29 3y ago
So I bought a 16GB 6-month tourist sim, and somehow run it out, probably by drunkenly making video calls / using YouTube without realising I wasn't connected to wifi. I think there are unlimited or huge (30GB/month) sims available for non-tourists. A lot of households use 4G as their main internet source via a dongle!
- netsharc 3y ago
  The dongles have weekly limits too, I think. I remember staying in an AirBnB that came with a 4G dongle for the guest, but the week's quota had been spent by the previous guest.
- marak830 3y ago
  I have 60GB a month on my phone, at home we recently switched from a wired 2Gb/unlimited connection to a 5g/unlimited connection. (This is in Japan btw). There are many options for non-tourists.

by Liambp 3y ago

pxx 3y ago

What in the world are you talking about? Taking a brief look at Airalo, it looks like it'd cost me $4-5 per gigabyte to buy an eSIM. I literally see no unlimited options on Amazon. Randomly navigating to telekom.de, I see a front page offer of €34.95 monthly for a five gigabyte plan with a 24 month contract term. orange.fr seems to do a little better with a €16.99 plan for 100 GB but it seems to be a promo rate and also requires an activation fee and a bank account statement, making it useless for tourists. Still, $5 is a lot cheaper than €16.99 even if you could get that rate. For €5 prepaid you get, I shit you not, 20 megabytes of data from Orange. https://boutique.orange.fr/vitrine/rechargements-mobile/mobicarte/#max https://boutique.orange.fr/vitrine/rechargements-mobile/mobi...

johnwalkr 3y ago
Wow 20MB isn’t even enough to open Google maps, find a restaurant and navigate to its menu. Unlimited plans usually throttle you these days too. I have €60 “unlimited” from orange.lu and after 250GB it throttles to 250kbps. At this speed hacker news is usable but not much else is. It’s €20 to add another 100GB. While waiting months for home internet to be installed I tethered to this and between WFH, gaming and streaming I usually had to top up 1-2 times per month.
Liambp 3y ago
Prepay is generally a better deal in UK and Ireland and often includes unlimited internet for about €20. Here is an example from Vodafone (not the cheapest by any means): https://n.vodafone.ie/shop/pay-as-you-go-plans.html https://n.vodafone.ie/shop/pay-as-you-go-plans.html €25 per month gets you unlimited data in Ireland and up to 30Gb in other EU countries including Germany. I have always thought it a bit odd that users with a monthly contract often pay more than "pay as you go pre-pay" but I think that is because it is mainly business and older people who opt for a monthly contract.
- pxx 3y ago
  Did you really point out a plan that has sharply limited data in the EU as some sort of support for your original statement that nobody worries about data in the EU??

rjh29 3y ago

So I bought a 16GB 6-month tourist sim, and somehow run it out, probably by drunkenly making video calls / using YouTube without realising I wasn't connected to wifi. I think there are unlimited or huge (30GB/month) sims available for non-tourists. A lot of households use 4G as their main internet source via a dongle!

netsharc 3y ago
The dongles have weekly limits too, I think. I remember staying in an AirBnB that came with a 4G dongle for the guest, but the week's quota had been spent by the previous guest.
marak830 3y ago
I have 60GB a month on my phone, at home we recently switched from a wired 2Gb/unlimited connection to a 5g/unlimited connection. (This is in Japan btw). There are many options for non-tourists.