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I'd consider UK a developed country and DSL/Fiber is not cheap.
BT Unlimited - 36/10 - £20/pm + £15/pm line rental.
I use Three (UK) £25m/o
Unlimited Minutes - Unlimited Texts - Unlimited (3G-4G Data)
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/1082093945
We are getting DSL on copper line 4/1 Mbps for Approx. $25 per month.
The reason to why mobile networks are expensive is due to
Spectrum is an important key role, just like WiFi load too many users on top, the airwaves become congested, as such a wireless carrier must own and operate many bands to accommodate this. Which is why in the US you'll always see the main 4 carriers (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint) Always trying to bid on spectrum. Which is ... Expensive $$$
Secondly, the actual equipment itself to serve the signal isn't quite cheap. Radio head units, panel per sectors all factor in, upgrading the Fiber or T1 lines to the cell site is also costly.
T-Mobile is the only carrier that seems to be really Unlimited in the states, and the cheapest.
I don't mention sprint anywhere because in many areas/markets they've neglected their network for years, So they're playing catch up right now.
$35 Unlimited Talk, Text, Web, Hotspot (5GB)
You'd get 20GB with Tele2 in Sweden for that price
Edit: saw that someone mentioned Tele2 already.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_(game)
TDC have some crazy corporate offers too like bandwidth pooling which helps. When I was out in Sweden, we had Telia DOF, that always used to make me laugh.
Three is great, I use Three personally. Company uses Vodafone which is dreadful.
Capitalism, otherwise i could not explain to me. UK/AT you can get flats for 20-40EUR.
Here (still inside of the EU) you still pay for 300MB 8EUR, the cheapest is 5GB for 15EUR Monthly, the rest 30GB LTE for 60EUR........
In Poland we have free unlimited traffic mobile Internet called Aero2, but it's limited to 512 kbps.
I pay €30 for free calls, free SMS and 20G 4G network.
I Can use it in Denmark and in 19 other countries on the same terms
Belgien
England
Finland
Frankrig
Holland
Hongkong
Irland
Italien
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Nordirland
Norge
San Marino
Schweiz
Skotland
Sverige
Tyskland
Wales
Østrig
From where?
Denmark. Provider is 3.dk
Woah, this cap should have been in place at the time of your test.
EE L2 Tech support! apparently at the time (3 months ago) it was passing 1.6Gbps. it's likely it serves for miles and even maybe the city centre (parts of)
Specifically this one https://www.flickr.com/photos/liverpoolsuburbia/4671354564/
it's sending out DC-HSDPA/LTE and soon LTE-A
I believe it's owned by MBNL
54 CNY for 2GB, China Unicom Hebei.
Shijiazhuang, known as the Capital of Hebei province, launched LTE FDD in 2014 Q3... Works well with my Nexus 5
But I'm still jealous that some ISPs in NA and EU can offer unlimited traffic
I'm going to guess that also, it takes a lot more energy to push stuff from towers through the air than along nicely conductive copper wiring. The efficiency is way different. Sort of like wired ethernet vs. wifi.
Also, cable has been in place for decades...and it runs along the same paths generally as phone, electricity, etc. Easy to get right of way. On the other hand, you have to build cell towers in the middle of cities, on very expensive real estate, etc.
Finally, cable was designed from the start for high throughput (television). Cell phones were originally voice, and every few years someone releases a new data standard and everyone clamors for it, and this means upgrading towers. Remember how awful the AT&T-only iPhone network was for the first few years?
67k won (nearly 56EUR) without VAT for 15GB data, 3Mbps limited after, Provider is Korea Telecom. too expensive u.u
I pay 15€/m for 3GB (after that limited to 64kbit/s) and no LTE (upto HSPA+) here in Germany. But that's with 1 month contract length. That's the cheapest offer you can get here (afaik) (excluding e plus, their covering is awful for me at home (2 to 3 bars edge, takes 2 minutes to load the mobile start page of G.)) with monthly billing.
paying 200hkd (25.80 USD) for an year access 5000 minute / 13gb. reception/speed is not the best but the value can't be beat.
the other very significant cost you havent included is the regulatory cost. the more developed nations impose a far higher regulatory standard/requirement on providers. installing new towers requires multiple permits, often case studies, more permits to run the cables to the tower etc.
15.50 eur per month for 2GB data @ 4G, 300 minutes for calls for every portuguese providers, unlimited SMS/MMS. - Portugal
Ah, that's cool. I know a vast amount of MBNL masts in the cities are already complete with 1Gb/s backhaul and heard rumours of some being planned an upgrade to 10Gb/s where needed. IIRC the 1Gb/s MBNL masts are split 650Mb/s for EE 2G/3G/4G and Three 3G, with the remaining 350Mb/s split for Three 4G.
Im about to pay 42 euro for 5gb @ 4g + unlimited calling / sms + some benefits in other countries + 'free' samsung s6.
Is that a reasonable deal?
Yes +1 for that. I would get it instantly :P
Hmm...on China Unicom as well. Looks like you got a better deal than I do.
I'm paying 8 CNY or 1.31 USD a month. The plan comes with 300 minutes, 300 texts and 100MB of data per month. Plus options to purchase 1GB rollover-able data package for 25CNY/4USD a pop.
Didn't read the whole thread but it's a classic economic problem of shared resources. Spectrum is (within reason i.e. geographic bubbles) a shared and limited resource. We can't make more of it. Everyone within some radius are sharing it with each other. For wired networks, if you just build a second cable, you have doubled the capacity so the system scaled linearly whereas with wireless, you have a fixed spectrum and the only way to "build more" is to use the existing spectrum more efficiently. This is difficult and takes expensive R&D to figure out how to do, and it doesn't solve the problem that (ceteris paribus) a scare resource will always be more expensive than a plentiful resource (assuming they are close substitutes).
In the UK, the providers have to bid on the spectrum and there are many millions spent so I guess they don't reduce prices so they can cover the outlay, who knows, but thats my guess.
Luckily like quite a few people here I am on Three UK and get unlimited minutes / text / 3&4G. On top of that, they now let me use my inclusive minutes for text and talk in 7 or 8 different countries, including the USA, and so much data (can't remember how much)
If one network can do it why can't the rest - simple answer, like most big companies slowly raping the general public, is shareholders. They want they bite of money pie, screw the rest of the population as long as shareholders are happy the company can keep smiling.
/rant over
Soo, the major 3/4G providers are still overcharging us?
You can pick it up @ phonehouse this friday.