4 ms·

Is $10/GB and $0.2/min normal within the US? I'm not familiar with American (non-roaming) pricing. For comparison: In Germany I have an LTE data plan for my t

by pluma 12y ago

Is $10/GB and $0.2/min normal within the US? I'm not familiar with American (non-roaming) pricing. For comparison: In Germany I have an LTE data plan for my tablet where I pay €24.99 for 7.5GB (~$3.57/GB), the lowest plan being €6.99 for 1GB (~$7.50/GB). Unlimited calls in Germany including 1GB data would cost me €19.99/month (~$21.48) at the same provider and unlimited text in Germany would be an additional €4.99/month (~$5.36), otherwise texts are €0.09 each (~$0.10). Many German providers offer pre-paid (or post-paid) plans with €0.09/minute and €0.09/text. My current plans work out as follows: Tablet with 7.5GB LTE data plan: €24.99 / ~$26.83 (~$3.57/GB) Smartphone with 1GB LTE data, 200 minutes and 200 texts: €11.90 / ~$12.87 Overages per minute: €0.09 / ~$0.10 Overages per text: €0.09 / ~$0.10 Overages for data: free (at significantly reduced speed; "high-speed" extra data can be added for €3-9/GB depending on the plan and provider) The next closest plan for my smartphone would be 1GB LTE data, 400 minutes and 400 texts at €15.90 / ~$17.07, the difference works out to €0.01 (~$0.01) per minute or text. I'm using my own devices, so the plans don't include the cost of the devices themselves. My mobile phone bill over the past months mostly ranged from €14-20 and my tablet bill was mostly fixed at €24.99 (turns out 7.5GB is generally sufficient unless I use Netflix outside WiFi a lot). Also, tethering isn't a problem either, but obviously roaming is excessively expensive even in the EU.

pyrocat 12y ago
Not sure about the per minute pricing, but the data cost is low.
jkaljundi 12y ago
In Estonia I pay €12 for 5 GB or €17 for 10 GB or €23 for 20 GB. Additional 1 GB at €2 or 3 GB €4. Tethering always included.
unprepare 12y ago
A carrier in germany has to build 26 times less towers than a carrier in the US, because germany is more than 26 times smaller than the US. I would think the increased expenditure of 26 times more towers would increase the cost of plans. Europe also never had the culture of carrier subsidized phones, and so were never accustomed to paying more in monthly fees in exchange for low to no cost upgrades of hardware. Tethering varies by carrier in the US - Verizon is legally obligated to allow tethering due to the result of a lawsuit, so they do not charge any extra for this, i believe t-mobile also does not charge for tethering, but it is not related to a lawsuit AFAIK A final point is that pricing for data is fundamentally different in europe as i understand it. Most plans i am familiar with in europe tier data prices by speed - in the US almost all plans get the fastest speeds available, but it is tiered but amount of data used. You cannot pay for faster speeds on a typical US plan, only for greater amounts of data. The european side of that may have changed, as its been a year or so since i was last in europe looking into this
- ricardobeat 12y ago
  > Europe also never had the culture of carrier subsidized phones, and so were never accustomed to paying more in monthly fees in exchange for low to no cost upgrades of hardware. I live in the Netherlands and subsidized phones are the norm here, don't think other countries are that different.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - rizwank 12y ago
    My experience in NL was differentiated pricing based upon the phone you got - ie it was subsidized by financing. In the states it was a massive flat out discount that wasn't explicit financing.
- pluma 12y ago
  There are considerably more providers than actual carriers in Germany. The way frequencies are assigned in Germany probably plays into this, but in a nutshell: many if not most people don't have contracts with the actual network operators (i.e. carriers) but with companies that are merely service providers. There are a lot of spin-off companies offering discounted monthly or pre-paid plans contracts compared to the expensive 2 year plans offered by their parent companies (e.g. Congstar is a subsidiary of Telekom Deutschland). What you say about subsidized phones is patently false. I don't recall unsubsidized phones being a thing at all in Germany when mobile phones first became popular. Even today many if not most Germans seem to prefer subsidized phones -- in my experience buying your phone separately is only common in the more tech savvy or higher end markets, although the growing popularity of discounted month-to-month mobile plans may be changing that. AFAIK tethering and jailbreaking/rooting is, generally speaking, always legal in Germany. For subsidized phones things can be different if you're not actually purchasing the phone but only leasing it (because it isn't your property and therefore you're not allowed to modify it), but I think these days most contracts have you actually purchase the phone. Not sure whether this is due to market demand, but I think there's also a decline in carrier branded phones, so it might simply be that. Except for pre-paid/post-paid (i.e. no fixed plan, pay-as-you-go) contracts, I think all German providers offer unlimited low-speed data with a varying amount of high-speed data. As far as I can tell, most if not all providers these days offer their fastest speeds as "high-speed" on all contracts with only the amount of data being the difference, not tiered speed caps (this definitely used to be different). So, yeah, your information seems to be a bit out of date. At least with regard to Germany -- I don't know enough about other EU countries to say anything about them.
adventured 12y ago
Roaming is almost non-existent in the US now among the four major networks. Not sure if you mean domestic or international though. I pay about $65 / month with AT&T, for unlimited talk & text, and 5gb of LTE data (10gb shared on a two person family plan). That includes the cost of the device.
- pluma 12y ago
  What is domestic roaming? I guess you mean state-to-state within the US? I wouldn't have thought that that would have ever been a thing (at least not after domestic long distance calls stopped being a thing). I always hear Americans say they have unlimited talk and text. Is this really the most popular option or do most plans just include it by default? Might explain why American mobile plans always sound so incredibly expensive to me (i.e. "pay for what you use" a la Ting is actually a disruptive idea in that market because everybody overpays by default).
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    Domestic roaming is using a (domestic) network not belonging to the users contracted carrier.
hisem 12y ago
In France we have a €19.99/mo plan with unlimited talk for domestic (land and mobile) and a huge selection of international countries (land), unlimited SMS/MMS, and 20Go of Data (yes, twenty). That plan can go down to €15.99/mo if you also go with this carrier for your home's broadband access. That same carrier (called "Free mobile") offers a €2.00/mo plan for 2h talk, unlimited SMS/MMS and 50Mo data, which is €0/mo (free) if you're subscribed to their broadband.
- draven 12y ago
  And if the contract did not change, tethering is included. In addition with their ADSL offering you're allowed to host a server at home on your ADSL connection (which others did explicitly forbid when I chose Free over them a few years ago.) EDIT: typo

by pluma 12y ago

pyrocat 12y ago

Not sure about the per minute pricing, but the data cost is low.

jkaljundi 12y ago

In Estonia I pay €12 for 5 GB or €17 for 10 GB or €23 for 20 GB. Additional 1 GB at €2 or 3 GB €4. Tethering always included.

unprepare 12y ago

A carrier in germany has to build 26 times less towers than a carrier in the US, because germany is more than 26 times smaller than the US. I would think the increased expenditure of 26 times more towers would increase the cost of plans. Europe also never had the culture of carrier subsidized phones, and so were never accustomed to paying more in monthly fees in exchange for low to no cost upgrades of hardware. Tethering varies by carrier in the US - Verizon is legally obligated to allow tethering due to the result of a lawsuit, so they do not charge any extra for this, i believe t-mobile also does not charge for tethering, but it is not related to a lawsuit AFAIK A final point is that pricing for data is fundamentally different in europe as i understand it. Most plans i am familiar with in europe tier data prices by speed - in the US almost all plans get the fastest speeds available, but it is tiered but amount of data used. You cannot pay for faster speeds on a typical US plan, only for greater amounts of data. The european side of that may have changed, as its been a year or so since i was last in europe looking into this

ricardobeat 12y ago
> Europe also never had the culture of carrier subsidized phones, and so were never accustomed to paying more in monthly fees in exchange for low to no cost upgrades of hardware. I live in the Netherlands and subsidized phones are the norm here, don't think other countries are that different.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- rizwank 12y ago
  My experience in NL was differentiated pricing based upon the phone you got - ie it was subsidized by financing. In the states it was a massive flat out discount that wasn't explicit financing.
pluma 12y ago
There are considerably more providers than actual carriers in Germany. The way frequencies are assigned in Germany probably plays into this, but in a nutshell: many if not most people don't have contracts with the actual network operators (i.e. carriers) but with companies that are merely service providers. There are a lot of spin-off companies offering discounted monthly or pre-paid plans contracts compared to the expensive 2 year plans offered by their parent companies (e.g. Congstar is a subsidiary of Telekom Deutschland). What you say about subsidized phones is patently false. I don't recall unsubsidized phones being a thing at all in Germany when mobile phones first became popular. Even today many if not most Germans seem to prefer subsidized phones -- in my experience buying your phone separately is only common in the more tech savvy or higher end markets, although the growing popularity of discounted month-to-month mobile plans may be changing that. AFAIK tethering and jailbreaking/rooting is, generally speaking, always legal in Germany. For subsidized phones things can be different if you're not actually purchasing the phone but only leasing it (because it isn't your property and therefore you're not allowed to modify it), but I think these days most contracts have you actually purchase the phone. Not sure whether this is due to market demand, but I think there's also a decline in carrier branded phones, so it might simply be that. Except for pre-paid/post-paid (i.e. no fixed plan, pay-as-you-go) contracts, I think all German providers offer unlimited low-speed data with a varying amount of high-speed data. As far as I can tell, most if not all providers these days offer their fastest speeds as "high-speed" on all contracts with only the amount of data being the difference, not tiered speed caps (this definitely used to be different). So, yeah, your information seems to be a bit out of date. At least with regard to Germany -- I don't know enough about other EU countries to say anything about them.

adventured 12y ago

Roaming is almost non-existent in the US now among the four major networks. Not sure if you mean domestic or international though. I pay about $65 / month with AT&T, for unlimited talk & text, and 5gb of LTE data (10gb shared on a two person family plan). That includes the cost of the device.

pluma 12y ago
What is domestic roaming? I guess you mean state-to-state within the US? I wouldn't have thought that that would have ever been a thing (at least not after domestic long distance calls stopped being a thing). I always hear Americans say they have unlimited talk and text. Is this really the most popular option or do most plans just include it by default? Might explain why American mobile plans always sound so incredibly expensive to me (i.e. "pay for what you use" a la Ting is actually a disruptive idea in that market because everybody overpays by default).
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  Domestic roaming is using a (domestic) network not belonging to the users contracted carrier.

hisem 12y ago

In France we have a €19.99/mo plan with unlimited talk for domestic (land and mobile) and a huge selection of international countries (land), unlimited SMS/MMS, and 20Go of Data (yes, twenty). That plan can go down to €15.99/mo if you also go with this carrier for your home's broadband access. That same carrier (called "Free mobile") offers a €2.00/mo plan for 2h talk, unlimited SMS/MMS and 50Mo data, which is €0/mo (free) if you're subscribed to their broadband.

draven 12y ago
And if the contract did not change, tethering is included. In addition with their ADSL offering you're allowed to host a server at home on your ADSL connection (which others did explicitly forbid when I chose Free over them a few years ago.) EDIT: typo