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Report from the field: On Friday I walked into a cell phone shop and told them I wanted a SIM mainly for data. They suggested a prepaid "all you can eat data" S
by seiji 14y ago
Report from the field: On Friday I walked into a cell phone shop and told them I wanted a SIM mainly for data. They suggested a prepaid "all you can eat data" SIM good for one month (realistically it alerts at 15 GB usage). €20 ($26 USD). The €20 goes towards pay-per-minute and pay-per-text usage, but who calls or uses non-iMessage these days?
Back home, my Verizon bill will be $120 every month with one iPhone 5 and one LTE iPad sharing the same data plan (breakdown: $40 for iPhone 5, $10 for iPad, $70 for unlimited talk/text + 4GB shared data (or, replace $70 with $100 for 10 shared GB data for a grand customer abuse total of $150 every month)). You can't seem to even get non-unlimited voice/text anymore. Let's not bring up the $35 fee per device they charge to "activate" it either -- I don't want to headasplode in this room (it has white walls).
Data only, please. For under $3/GB, please. RFN, please, not in another 10 years.
- semenko 14y agoTo be fair, you can get similar costs in the US, but most people opt for subsidized phones (and the associated contracts). I have a prepaid mostly-data SIM for $30/month via T-Mobile prepaid (http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/ http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/). Maybe we'll see more consumers move that way around Google's (rumored) November 5th phone launch.
- X-Istence 14y agoIf I want to use the iPhone 4S on T-Mobile's network I am stuck using edge only because of incompatibility between the GSM networks (thank you FCC!) and which bands are available to whom. If I were to want a plan with AT&T that offered me what I have now (450 minutes a month, 2 GB of data and unlimited texting) I'd still be out 90 USD per month whether I purchased my own device or not because AT&T doesn't do discounts for bring your own device customers (T-Mobile contract customers can get a discount for bring your own device, or at least that was the case when I was a customer with them. Knocked $20 off the price off a contract). I'd be more than happy to purchase a phone outright and pay MUCH less per month. My sister has an unlimited data plan, 400 minutes a month and unlimited texting for a grand total of 40 EUR in The Netherlands with T-Mobile. She doesn't talk much, but texts and iMessages a crap ton and uses about 6 GB's of data on average listening to streamable music and online radio stations. At the current exchange rate that is 50 USD. Do note that her phone is subsidized as well, also it comes unlocked so she can move carrier when her contract is up without issues. I pay 90 USD and get only 2 GB of data a month. How does this even make sense?
- abruzzi 14y agoI recently canceled my AT&T contract, paid my ETF, bought a straighttalk SIM, and now $50/mo ($45 plus taxes.) for 'unlimited' service. It works without unlocking because straighttalk is an AT&T based MVNO (or at least the sim I bought from them is.). It's not perfect, but I'll make back my ETF in four months.
- onetwothreefour 14y agoYou might be on the AT&T cell network, but you're being proxied onto StraightTalk's gateway to get out onto the Internet. And that's the part which sucks. :)
- vl 14y agoDo you know if they allow non-http connections? What are they proxying for? Downsampling images? $45 price point seems unbelievable.
- dale386 14y agoT-Mobile is retooling their network to give HSPA+ speeds to iPhone users. This should be done by the end of the year. I am considering leaving Verizon for their bring-your-own device plans with my iPhone 4S. These plans are around $45/mo for 5GB data and more voice and texts than I can use. The only thing holding me back is their insistence on getting me to sign a 2 year contract. I've been on Verizon for 10 years and know nothing about T-Mobile's level of service. I would not want to lock myself into a contract with them without the ability to leave at will.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- shmerl 14y agoThat's strange. Right now they list 5 GB plan as $70/month: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans?clicked=link2 http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans?clicked=... And usually their non contract plans are cheaper. They do offer another 5 GB plan for $30, but with 100 minutes / month for calls.
- ojbyrne 14y agoThere's no plan on that page under $50/month. And the $50/month plan (which I currently have) includes first 100 MB (!) at 4G, after which the data is at 2G.
- j_s 14y agoAs shmerl pointed out, you have to dig a tiny bit (web exclusive!!!!): http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans
- fireflash38 14y ago> who calls or uses non-iMessage these days Quite a few people actually. The former is rarer, but there is an increasingly large portion of the populace that doesn't use iMessage (considering it's proprietary to Apple). Sure, you can work around using Google Voice to SMS/Call over data, but that isn't for everyone.
- w1ntermute 14y agoOr use Google Talk, for fuck's sake. The protocol is open, and the service is very reliable. I got all my friends running iOS to get Vtok, and now they can chat with me too. And you don't have to be on a Mac to use it from a computer - just log into Gmail or use any Jabber/XMPP client you want. I haven't used any other messaging service in over 5 years. The only thing I use Google Voice for is the one or two friends still using dumbphones.
- mitjak 14y agoPresumably, you do call now and then? Or all your conversations are conducted through the use of a keyboard?
- w1ntermute 14y agoGoogle Talk supports both voice and video calling. I use it quite regularly to make international calls for free.
- mitjak 14y agoDo you mean the browser plug-in? How does it work if you're on the go with only a mobile OS available?
- w1ntermute 14y agoNo, I mean the Google Talk mobile app allows you to make voice and video calls. I'm not talking about calling phones, I mean you can call other Google Talk users. You can of course use Google Voice on Android to make international phone calls if you want, as well.
- pragmatic 14y agoWhat is iMessage?
- harpb 14y agoIn UK, I was able to get Data plan on 3G for $10/Month on a sim. Doubt that will ever happen here in USA - grrr
- jwr 14y agoAs a data point, I pay about $15/mo for 8GB of wireless data + 50GB during night hours. HSPA+ speeds, realistically I get 4-6Mbps down and 2Mbps up on average. That's in Poland. I guess Americans lucked out on amazingly low hardware prices, so that's why you have to get ripped off on data plans :-)
- mitjak 14y agoThis doesn't seem to be brought up in the thread, which is surprising: What about wifi? This month I've cancelled my $70/mo 6GB data/150 min talk service with Fido (Canada) and switched my iPhone to a prepaid SIM. Mostly because I've realized that 99% of the time I need data I am very likely to be reading, coding, or otherwise consuming, in which case I'm probably at home, at a friend's place, at a café, or generally a wifi equipped spot. It's not a real solution if you do need data everywhere you go, but I recall reading that wifi is much cheaper to build a larger infrastructure from; hence all the city-wide wifi projects I suppose. Can anyone with an insight chime in?
- stephengillie 14y agoThat's how I am... I'm only missing the internet at the grocery store.
- eli_gottlieb 14y agoI can add another data-point. Back in the States, I paid $50/month for T-Mobile's unlimited-everything monthly/no-contract plan. There was an additional $10 fee for international calling, if I wanted it. This plan was later grandfathered out, leaving the only similar plan being one where you get on a contract and buy a new, SIM-locked device. Before it was grandfathered out, Consumer Reports ran an article on the under-appreciation of no-contract SIMs in America. Where I am now (Northern Israel), the government passed a law against lock-in contracts last year. As a result, there has been a "cellular revolution". My new SIM, which might arrive in the mail today, costs 99 shekels per month (roughly $25 USD, but the shekel has been tending to rise against the dollar faster than the Central Bank can buy American bonds to keep it down). It includes unlimited calls, text and data, including international (to my American family) for no additional cost. The internet service I have here, coupled to minimal public-access television service, is 10 Mb/sec download speed for 65 shekels ($16.25 USD) per month. The providers of physical internet infrastructure (cable and DSL) are also separated here from ISPs. A competitor to my DSL company offers 100 Mb/sec for 20 shekels ($5 USD) per month, but isn't available everywhere. This DSL company will upgrade you to 20 Mb/sec if you catch them offering a sale. By contrast, a minimal cable package of public-access channels and broadband internet back in the USA cost about $45/month, before you've paid any other bills, and it gave you about 3-5 Mb/sec. (Admittedly, these prices reflect household incomes being lower here, since the average worker's salary is something like $28k/year and most households have two working parents. But the way America has been going, those kinds of numbers are now typical there too, but without prices having gone down.) So yeah. America gets gypped because its government consistently refuses to do anything about telecom infrastructure. It's pretty sad, considering how little you actually have to do to get decent results.