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German resident here. I have pre-pay with a Vodafone subsidiary with a €10 data flat rate as an additional add-on. My wife just has pre-pay and we have free ca

by junto 12y ago

German resident here. I have pre-pay with a Vodafone subsidiary with a €10 data flat rate as an additional add-on. My wife just has pre-pay and we have free calls between each other. Our total monthly bill is ~€20 per month. The idea of paying $65 per month, per person is crazy. Is that a standard average cost?

joshuapants 12y ago
Prices for many are inflated. Typically the really expensive bills are for 2-year contracts with the price of the phone subsidized. US carriers really like to chisel you on data plans as well. Personally, I pay $30 a month to T-Mobile, no contract, I bring my own phone and I get unlimited data (5GB at LTE, speed throttled thereafter) and unlimited SMS with 100 minutes. It's possible to go cheaper if you're willing to give up data entirely through a number of MVNOs.
cssmoo 12y ago
Similar in UK. I clock £15/month on giffgaff ($22) and get 5Gb data, 500 mins calls to anywhere, free giffgaff/giffgaff and never pay for an SMS to anyone. Never even use half of it up even when my cruddy ISP goes down and I have to use it for tethering. Paid £130 for a Moto G handset.
jagira 12y ago
In India, pre-pay call rates are like 1.5 cents per minute and 2-3 USD for 1 GB of data. Data gets cheaper with volume. Nearly all of texting happens via WhatsApp. My and most of my friends' monthly costs do not exceed 500 INR (~8 USD).
eroded 12y ago
Don't forget those expensive plans typically bundle say a 700Eur+ iPhone into the plan on credit...
miguelrochefort 12y ago
In Canada, the cheapest iPhone plan you can find is $200 upfront + $80/month. If you bring your own device, expect to pay $65/month for unlimited talking, unlimited messaging, and 1GB of data. Additional data usually costs around $5/250MB. That's in 2015.
- danpat 12y ago
  I cut costs way down by getting a "data-only" SIM for my iPhone and using a VOIP provider. Call quality in poor signal (e.g. 2G) areas is terrible, but in urban areas with HSPA or LTE, it works great. I talk very little. Look for the "flex-rate" plans that Rogers/Telus/etc offer. I sometimes pay as little as $5/mo if I don't use my phone, it scales with data usage.
  - miguelrochefort 12y ago
    No carrier ever accepted to sell me a data-only plan for my phone. I've been trying for a long time...
    - danpat 12y ago
      The trick is to ask for a tablet SIM or mobile internet SIM for a laptop. Don't say it's for your phone.

by junto 12y ago

joshuapants 12y ago

Prices for many are inflated. Typically the really expensive bills are for 2-year contracts with the price of the phone subsidized. US carriers really like to chisel you on data plans as well. Personally, I pay $30 a month to T-Mobile, no contract, I bring my own phone and I get unlimited data (5GB at LTE, speed throttled thereafter) and unlimited SMS with 100 minutes. It's possible to go cheaper if you're willing to give up data entirely through a number of MVNOs.

cssmoo 12y ago

Similar in UK. I clock £15/month on giffgaff ($22) and get 5Gb data, 500 mins calls to anywhere, free giffgaff/giffgaff and never pay for an SMS to anyone. Never even use half of it up even when my cruddy ISP goes down and I have to use it for tethering. Paid £130 for a Moto G handset.

jagira 12y ago

In India, pre-pay call rates are like 1.5 cents per minute and 2-3 USD for 1 GB of data. Data gets cheaper with volume. Nearly all of texting happens via WhatsApp. My and most of my friends' monthly costs do not exceed 500 INR (~8 USD).

eroded 12y ago

Don't forget those expensive plans typically bundle say a 700Eur+ iPhone into the plan on credit...

miguelrochefort 12y ago

In Canada, the cheapest iPhone plan you can find is $200 upfront + $80/month. If you bring your own device, expect to pay $65/month for unlimited talking, unlimited messaging, and 1GB of data. Additional data usually costs around $5/250MB. That's in 2015.

danpat 12y ago
I cut costs way down by getting a "data-only" SIM for my iPhone and using a VOIP provider. Call quality in poor signal (e.g. 2G) areas is terrible, but in urban areas with HSPA or LTE, it works great. I talk very little. Look for the "flex-rate" plans that Rogers/Telus/etc offer. I sometimes pay as little as $5/mo if I don't use my phone, it scales with data usage.
- miguelrochefort 12y ago
  No carrier ever accepted to sell me a data-only plan for my phone. I've been trying for a long time...
  - danpat 12y ago
    The trick is to ask for a tablet SIM or mobile internet SIM for a laptop. Don't say it's for your phone.