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Data is ridiculously overpriced in the US. In the UK, I'm currently on a 12GB plan which costs £7.99 month. But you can get completely unlimited data including

by rcarr 3y ago

Data is ridiculously overpriced in the US. In the UK, I'm currently on a 12GB plan which costs £7.99 month. But you can get completely unlimited data including tethering for £20/month or less from lots of different providers. Never heard of unlimited for less than £15 though (unless its a temporary offer).

lotsofpulp 3y ago
“Unlimited” data is not comparable because different subscriber’s data gets assigned different priorities at times of congestion. In the US, you can get “unlimited” data for as low as $25 per month, or as high as $90 per month, depending on what level priority you want (which you assume might make a difference at peak times). And then there is a lot of bundling going on like Netflix and Disney or international. For example, I pay ATT $45 per line for 4 lines including all taxes, but they include phone calls and data for almost all of North and South America, minus the Caribbean Islands.
- rcarr 3y ago
  > “Unlimited” data is not comparable because different subscriber’s data gets assigned different priorities at times of congestion. > In the US, you can get “unlimited” data for as low as $25 per month, or as high as $90 per month, depending on what level priority you want (which you assume might make a difference at peak times). Yeah I don't think this happens in the UK/EU. The US system seems really weird and complex in comparison. Those prices I quoted above include unlimited calls and texts to anywhere in the UK.
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    “QCI” was the industry term I was looking for. Here is some unsubstantiated, but true sounding information about the US mobile networks: https://www.reddit.com/r/NoContract/comments/oaophe/data_prioritization_policies_of_the_carriers_and/ https://www.reddit.com/r/NoContract/comments/oaophe/data_pri... I would be surprised if UK/EU did not also have it. Surely, it exists for certain levels of politicians/government/emergency services. Seems like a short throw to then extending that implementation to capture as much revenue as you can by implementing price segmentation strategies like in the US.
    - lucb1e 3y ago
      I didn't know this was a thing. As someone who's on roaming 90% of the time with a MVNO from another country, definitely a good thing to know about! Thanks for linking. Also relevant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QoS_Class_Identifier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QoS_Class_Identifier (to know what QCI stands for)
    - rcarr 3y ago
      Yeah its illegal to offer plans based on throttling/prioritisation in the EU. > Under these rules, blocking, throttling and discrimination of internet traffic by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) is not allowed in the EU. There are 3 exceptions: compliance with legal obligations; integrity of the network; congestion management in exceptional and temporary situations. > All traffic has to be treated equally. For example, there can be no prioritisation of traffic in the Internet access service. Equal treatment still allows reasonable day-to-day traffic management according to objectively justified technical requirements, which must be independent of the origin or destination of the traffic and of any commercial considerations. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/open-internet https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/open-inter... For the time being the UK is still aligned with EU law on this but there's lobbying to make things more like the US: https://cei.org/blog/how-the-uk-can-reform-can-improve-internet-connectivity-for-consumers/ https://cei.org/blog/how-the-uk-can-reform-can-improve-inter...
      - lotsofpulp 3y ago
        Interesting, but I wonder if this exception would not allow the same: > congestion management in exceptional and temporary situations. I presume the US mobile networks are primarily selling higher priority that applies (since it only needs to be applied) in exceptional and temporary situations.
        rcarr 3y ago
        I'd say the EU are generally less tolerant of loophole based exploitation of the law than the US (see for example the potential Apple USB-C speed throttling in the news recently). Anyone who tried this kind of thing would get sanctioned pretty quick.

by rcarr 3y ago

lotsofpulp 3y ago

“Unlimited” data is not comparable because different subscriber’s data gets assigned different priorities at times of congestion. In the US, you can get “unlimited” data for as low as $25 per month, or as high as $90 per month, depending on what level priority you want (which you assume might make a difference at peak times). And then there is a lot of bundling going on like Netflix and Disney or international. For example, I pay ATT $45 per line for 4 lines including all taxes, but they include phone calls and data for almost all of North and South America, minus the Caribbean Islands.

rcarr 3y ago
> “Unlimited” data is not comparable because different subscriber’s data gets assigned different priorities at times of congestion. > In the US, you can get “unlimited” data for as low as $25 per month, or as high as $90 per month, depending on what level priority you want (which you assume might make a difference at peak times). Yeah I don't think this happens in the UK/EU. The US system seems really weird and complex in comparison. Those prices I quoted above include unlimited calls and texts to anywhere in the UK.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  “QCI” was the industry term I was looking for. Here is some unsubstantiated, but true sounding information about the US mobile networks: https://www.reddit.com/r/NoContract/comments/oaophe/data_prioritization_policies_of_the_carriers_and/ https://www.reddit.com/r/NoContract/comments/oaophe/data_pri... I would be surprised if UK/EU did not also have it. Surely, it exists for certain levels of politicians/government/emergency services. Seems like a short throw to then extending that implementation to capture as much revenue as you can by implementing price segmentation strategies like in the US.
  - lucb1e 3y ago
    I didn't know this was a thing. As someone who's on roaming 90% of the time with a MVNO from another country, definitely a good thing to know about! Thanks for linking. Also relevant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QoS_Class_Identifier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QoS_Class_Identifier (to know what QCI stands for)
  - rcarr 3y ago
    Yeah its illegal to offer plans based on throttling/prioritisation in the EU. > Under these rules, blocking, throttling and discrimination of internet traffic by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) is not allowed in the EU. There are 3 exceptions: compliance with legal obligations; integrity of the network; congestion management in exceptional and temporary situations. > All traffic has to be treated equally. For example, there can be no prioritisation of traffic in the Internet access service. Equal treatment still allows reasonable day-to-day traffic management according to objectively justified technical requirements, which must be independent of the origin or destination of the traffic and of any commercial considerations. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/open-internet https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/open-inter... For the time being the UK is still aligned with EU law on this but there's lobbying to make things more like the US: https://cei.org/blog/how-the-uk-can-reform-can-improve-internet-connectivity-for-consumers/ https://cei.org/blog/how-the-uk-can-reform-can-improve-inter...
    - lotsofpulp 3y ago
      Interesting, but I wonder if this exception would not allow the same: > congestion management in exceptional and temporary situations. I presume the US mobile networks are primarily selling higher priority that applies (since it only needs to be applied) in exceptional and temporary situations.
      - rcarr 3y ago
        I'd say the EU are generally less tolerant of loophole based exploitation of the law than the US (see for example the potential Apple USB-C speed throttling in the news recently). Anyone who tried this kind of thing would get sanctioned pretty quick.