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As others have said, this article was remarkably sensationalist and cherry picked many of their facts. However there is a grain of truth in here - while Europe
by mech4bg 14y ago
As others have said, this article was remarkably sensationalist and cherry picked many of their facts.
However there is a grain of truth in here - while Europe had MUCH higher internet / phone / cable costs 10 years ago, from what I've learned from my friends over there the price has dropped dramatically. While 'regular' plans are comparable to US plans, the budget operators are incredibly cheap.
It's been a similar situation in Australia. We had incredibly high costs, and for many years the value of our internet went BACKWARDS - as the price went up, our data was also heavily restricted. However that trend finally reversed and it's much better value now. When I left Australia I had a 200gb 100mbit internet plan with a home line for $78 a month (and that included a cable modem).
I have to say I was pretty shocked at how poor the choice and value is in the US after moving here, particularly in Silicon Valley. Fast internet (> 30mbit) is incredibly unaffordable, and there is huge pressure to have to bundle with cable TV (which I don't want or need).
And what's up with the phone plans here?! The only reason I'm not absolutely screaming about it is I'm on a shared plan with my wife - if I were trying to get a phone just for myself the costs would be insane.
The biggest kicker is trying to find a good prepaid with data SIM - in Australia you can walk into any 7-11 and buy a SIM card for $2 and then get on a $2/day unlimited phone/data prepaid plan (i.e. you just charge up and then every day you use it another $2 is taken off your tab). There is NOTHING like that here.
I'm not sure if it's because of a lack of competition or what - in Australia all networks are now (roughly) compatible with each other, so if you buy a phone on one network it'll work on another. Then you have many many resellers who buy the network access wholesale from the big providers and then resell it. Same for the internet market. That's the only thing I can think of - the US needs to get this happening ASAP.
- Jacqued 14y agoOne thing that is not mentioned is that in some European countries (like in France where I live), there is no limit to the amount of data transfer you can use in a month -- that is, on the home optic fiber lines, not on the mobile ones. I have a $30 100Mbps plan, and if I want to download 10 TB in a month, there is no additional charge for that. Mobile plans cost around $20-25 and are tipically capped at 3GB per month. But don't worry, we're still complaining very much, that the lines are too slow and expensive.
- jeltz 14y agoUnlimited plans for Internet over wire is the norm in most European countries. The only exception I know of is the UK. And at least in Sweden it has been like this since broadband was introduced.
- TeMPOraL 14y agoI can confirm that for Poland; I've been using an unlimited cable Internet here for like, 8 years or so.
- bearmf 14y agoIt is also the norm in US.
- jeltz 14y agoOk, could be confusing you with Canada then. There I know for sure most connections have a monthly bandwidth limit.
- philjohn 14y agoI'm on FTTC in the UK (BT Infinity) and on the £26 a month plan it's unlimited (as in, really unlimited). They do throttle BitTorrent though, but that's no great loss for me.
- gcb 14y agoit was the norm everywhere in the world until some 10-5yr ago. after all, they are already charging you based on advertised speed right? so think about it: they advertise "10MB/s for $50/mo". 2592000 seconds in a month. so they are advertising "25.920 GB/mo." ...but they only allow you to use 2 GB/mo how is this even possible with current advertising laws? Can i pay them with a check that says $50, and in small print, =only good for $0.50?
- rthomas6 14y agoActually I'm currently using a $45/mo unlimited phone and data plan in the US. Google Straight Talk. The only catch is apparently they get mad at you if you go over ~2 gb/mo.
- chimeracoder 14y ago> The only catch is apparently they get mad at you if you go over ~2 gb/mo. So, what you're saying is that you have a $45 unlimited phone with 2 GB/month data? Nearly all phone carriers in the US offer 'unlimited' plans which really boil down to hard- or soft-caps between 3-5 GB/month. It's terrible false advertising.
- jarek 14y ago> The biggest kicker is trying to find a good prepaid with data SIM - in Australia you can walk into any 7-11 and buy a SIM card for $2 and then get on a $2/day unlimited phone/data prepaid plan (i.e. you just charge up and then every day you use it another $2 is taken off your tab). There is NOTHING like that here. T-Mobile does a plan like this in the U.S., though data is "unlimited" with an asterisk, and you have to order the SIM online. $2 for 2G speeds data, $3 for a limited "4G" allowance. http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/pay-by-the-day-cell-phone-plans http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/pay-by-the-day-cell-phone...