Here in the US, we recently moved into a new house (rural) and my broadband wasn't setup yet, so I needed a temporary solution to continue working from home.
So, I headed off to the mall to compare mobile AP plans. Literally every option was either mega expensive (think multiple hundreds of dollars per month for 100 GB or the price was right but the service area was crap).
A lot of the mobile data plans actually only apply to direct usage from your phone. Not when using it as an AP (tethering). Those all have separate bandwidth limits. The standard amount on most plans (that you also have to pay extra for) is around 10 gigabytes. And, I didn't even find a normal consumer plan from ATT / Verizon (the only carriers with good service here) that let you buy more than that. You have to buy a super expensive business plan.
So yeah, fuck US LTE data plans. Absolute garbage if you actually try to use it for any serious work from a PC.
It's not a data plan, but I'm using straight talk's $55 "unlimited" plan. Supposedly I'll get throttled or whatever after 50GB or so based on congestion, but I'm generally over 100GB just from tethering and I've never been throttled. Not sure what network they use, I think Verizon. Might be an option to consider if you haven't yet.
Good plans come up semi frequently, you just need to know where to look. I worked from an RV full time for 2 years using only cell plans and I was pretty happy with the plans I had. I still use my Verizon Grandfathered Unlimited plan for home internet and routinely use >100GB/month for $80/month. That plus an AT&T connected car plan with unlimited data for $25/month and I am set. I spent a lot of time following https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/ before pulling the trigger on plans.
I know T-mobile has some coverage issues but their phone plan has free phone tethering. I think its capped at 3G speed but works great for typical laptop usage.
> Absolute garbage if you actually try to use it for any serious work from a PC.
I beg to differ - I have 2 hotspots from Verizon (15GB each -> 30GB total/month) and they support my full-time work as a remote developer. I have to avoid watching HD video, but that's effectively the only restriction I have.
My folks were nearly burned out in the Paradise Camp Fire (there's no visible structures around them). They went with a satellite-only broadband provider because it would've taken another 1-2 months from now to get POTS telephone restored (they would be the only customer on the street).
> A lot of the mobile data plans actually only apply to direct usage from your phone. Not when using it as an AP (tethering).
Not to take away from the larger point about US data plans, which is generally true.
But the fundamental market philosophy of the US is to exploit individuals' laziness. If you're unwilling to do the basic modern necessity of taking control of your phone, then you perfectly fit the profile to be their victim. If you're just walking into a carrier store/kiosk and asking them what they overtly market, you basically have "$$$" written on your forehead.
Practically - if I needed an LTE connection, I'd setup a fixed antenna aimed at a Sprint tower on a Clearwire-settlement plan, look into buying a grandfathered Mobley device on eBay, or accept a slightly lower speed for a consumer "unlimited data" plan (eg $55/mo for 3Mbps at Cricket).
> The BBC report, citing a UK-based price comparison site, said that 1 gigabyte (GB) of mobile data cost $0.26 in India (£0.20), compared with $12.37 in the US, $6.66 in the UK, and a global average of $8.53.
According to OECD, the Purchasing Power Parities (PPP) for India is 17.729 , UK is 0.691 and US is 1.0 [0]. That's a huge difference and hence, ignoring the purchasing power will not give you a full picture about the "cost".
Mobile telecom prices are just a pure licence to print money. The cost base (infrastructure and regulatory costs) is insignificant and the asking price maxed out - depending on the market.
Prices could be mitigated by competition but usualy we have oligopoly, by regulators (EU and roaming charges) or by taxation (licences to operate).
I always laugh when similar company with similar shareholders charge 15 times more in one country then in another.
Digi Malaysia extending prepaid for 1 year 68 ringit 15$, dtac Thailand 1$. Both owned by Telenor.
That’s true, but the cell towers are probably going to be of a similiar cost in India vs US. Lower (because wages are lower) but similar because the actual equipment is going to be the same price.
PPP is only relevent for things that have different prices in different countries (housing, food, etc). There are many things that cost roughly the same wherever you are: oil, macbooks, cell towers, etc.
As a general rule, the easier something is to arbitrage, the less PPP matters. The cost of arbitrage includes transport costs, taxes, and depreciation schedules (vegetables would be cheaper in India vs US because they are hard to transport, for example).
Of course this is only relevent if the US companies aren’t making crazy margins (I don’t personally know, but I suspect it’s possible).
However, This was not always true. Mobile data used to cost 5$ a GB. It was made possible by a company called Jio with a vision to provide internet for everyone. Then other companies followed their concept.
Purchasing power alone didn't bring this change. India had expensive internet like all other countries.
This. I pay €35 for T-mobile unlimited. Cheap enough for me but not the average Indian citizen I'm sure.
Companies can only price what the market can bear.
While it is cheapest there are many shady things that are going on. For example both Jio and BSNL automatically throttle your speed for porn and many other websites. BSNL outright bans the porn websites.
You forgot to mention the fact that BSNL injects malware and ads. And outrageously, they claim it is a feature! The way they do it by injecting javascript into your page that then does shitty pop-up scam ads (including ones that increase page counts for some pretty big e-com sites). Some of the pop-up/under ads then install malware of their own.
Simple Google DNS servers or things like that easily circumvent those restrictions, at least on AirTel & Jio. BSNL is always I have seen as follower of other companies in prices & policies.
A lot of European countries have unlimited data for data SIMs (Finland, Austria, Estonia, France, Switzerland and many more). With such SIM cards you can completely replace your home internet. I used that for a while and downloaded 1TB+ a month for less than 20 Euro. That would put me to 2ct/Gigabyte which would be even cheaper than what is quoted here.
I think what matters more than the price for the gigabyte is what you get in service for that. I'm absolutely happy to pay 50 EUR or more a month if the service is good.
Russia also have mobile ISP that have "unlimited" internet and at some moments can provide 70Mbps. There is some obvioua shaping for torrents, but with VPN it's possible to go well over 1TB on $15 / month plan. There were actually bunch of such options in past, but only few remains.
India's mobile data may be cheap, but it's also pretty poor. It may be 4G technology, but speeds are far below what's common in the UK / Europe. Last week in Delhi I was getting anywhere between a few kbps and ~2-3Mbps on Vodafone 4G.
I worked on a piece of software that was meant to communicate over wireless and the test bench folks were getting horrendously bad numbers compared to the rest of us.
They were getting 50% packet loss and so the throughput was maybe a tenth of what we were hoping for. Streaming really hates high packet loss rates, unless you've built FEC into the protocol (and we hadn't)
So India does have cheap mobile services, but the quality of it isn't great.
There are service outages, issues with coverage, and there are serve limits on the data.
I used JIO and had an average about 4mbps speed. Also, there has been concerns about censoring sites. (see r/india.. they blocked reddit in the last week)
I paid about 199inr (~$3) and got 2gbs per day for a month.
A tangential point ... but power cuts in Himachal? I grew up in Himachal in the late 80s and 90s, and power cuts were extremely rare. Himachal was one of the few states that was power surplus and boasted of 100% electrification. Has this changed in recent years?
Before Jio, different players held monopoly at different pockets and Jio flattened it. (Think BPL in Kerala, Airtel in metros, BSNL in rural areas, Orange in tier two cities). Because of this, when a provider increase prices, others will follow suit as everyone benefitted. So I assume the prices were high before Jio, and Jio did a correction.
Jio, will soon become a monopoly and as the article says, might jack up prices when they have the bigger slice of the pie. An acquisition of the second best then would seal the low price game and everything will go up then. Thats what Airtel was doing when they were number 1 a while back.
India is not as rich as developed economies, so the optimal price point for monopolists in general is lower (due to more people becoming unable to pay monopoly rents at lower prices).
When Jio was launched in 2016, Mukesh Ambani (Managing Director of Reliance Industries, parent company of Jio) quoted saying “Data is the new oil and we don’t need to import it”
Jio comes bundled with value added free services like JioTV, JioCinema, JioMagazine, JioMusic(JioSaavn now) and bunch of other apps.
India is a price sensitive market and hence Jio would keep prices lower for as long as possible to keep other players out. Jio is already posting profits.
They are in it for the long game. The bottomline is that prices may not go up anytime soon.
I live in Tanzania (moved from the US) and mobile data prices are also relatively cheap. I could get 4gb for 75 cents for 24 hours 11pm-5pm. Or I could get 1gb for 50 cents for 2 hours. The one I usually go for is 10gb for 7 USD for 7 days.
But because 4G is the only way to get internet, it actually becomes more expensive very quickly. I route all of my internet traffic through my phone or through my 4G mobile hotspot.
So I think the real reason that the data is cheaper is because 4G is the only way to get data, if your a consumer or a business. So the pricing reflects that.
Because in the first world we have fiber optics, this allows mobile companies to charge a ton of money per Gb, since no one is downloading large files with it anyways.
This is exactly what I miss after moving to US from India.
In 2012 the data in India was too much expensive, like a GB or two for a Dollar. Around 2017, It was About Two GB every day for 30 days for Two Dollars total. Amazing. 4G. Good coverage. Airtel. Here in US ATT gives me 3GB for a whole month, & extra $15 if I go over 3 for next 1 GB.
Infact from few days I am trying to find a cheaper data only prepaid pay-as-you-go Sim for my second phone.
Not sure where they're getting their data, but from anecdotal evidence, it seems off - in the UK I have something like 20 GB (not sure because never been anywhere near the limit) for £12 or so¹, so it's £0.6 per GB - a whole order of magnitude cheaper than quoted in the article.
[1] Technically less, because the £12 includes calls and SMS as well.
The article doesn't mention anything at all about technology or infrastructure. Are we really to believe that wireless data is orders of magnitude cheaper, purely because of price fixing in USA/UK? How much of the price difference can be explained by infrastructure, technology choices, labor, quality, etc?
I think the argument that Jio’s prices must necessarily go up is suspect. For one thing, the article does not present any reason this should be the case, other than prices being higher before Jio. But the other is that Jio’s business model is equivalent to Xiaomi’s. For Xiaomi, the phones are sold at a price that basically recovers costs, so they can make money off services. Jio is basically doing the same thing, only using its network instead of the hardware as a subscriber acquisition strategy.
It’s very possible that the strategy may not work, but if it does (and the article provides no evidence it won’t, in fact, it reveals that Jio is actually making more money per subscriber than the average telco), then there is no reason to believe prices will need to go up.
This is a stupid comparison. How can BBC claim with a straight face that India has the world's cheapest mobile data when access is sold by the gigabyte and other countries have truly unlimited mobile data?
Faster access is sold by gigabytes, which gets reset every 24h (You can still continue browsing after hitting the quota with lower speed). Meanwhile in the US, it's the same but your quota gets reset every billing period. Not sure which is the better model, but it's practically the same
Median income per annum in India would be about ~700 dollars per annum. Once one account most basic necessities of life there is not much money left to be paid for data plans in India. Its either you give them dirt cheap data plan or they won't use it.
Also not related to data plan but 22 out of 30 most polluted cities are in India. Just to put in perspective that their is more to life than cheap data plans. Broadband/data price is oddly a perennial obsession for relatively well earning group of people here.
maybe i can answer this - pollution is out of your control as a "well earning person", you can't even support a party that has anti-pollution measures as a platform ticket coz no party bothers - that is how many people care. That plus pollution doesn't impact me in my area, it's only really bad in the poorer areas. You can't organize cleanups for multiple hectares of garbage dumps. even kids can't be educated to go throw trash in a dustbin as there usually isn't a dustbin in sight in poorer areas.
What does impact me daily and affects QoL that I personally can affect? Internet speeds,Bandwidth rates and the quality of my next meal.
[+] [-] socialist_coder|7 years ago|reply
So, I headed off to the mall to compare mobile AP plans. Literally every option was either mega expensive (think multiple hundreds of dollars per month for 100 GB or the price was right but the service area was crap).
A lot of the mobile data plans actually only apply to direct usage from your phone. Not when using it as an AP (tethering). Those all have separate bandwidth limits. The standard amount on most plans (that you also have to pay extra for) is around 10 gigabytes. And, I didn't even find a normal consumer plan from ATT / Verizon (the only carriers with good service here) that let you buy more than that. You have to buy a super expensive business plan.
So yeah, fuck US LTE data plans. Absolute garbage if you actually try to use it for any serious work from a PC.
[+] [-] rascul|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pilom|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] syntaxing|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andy_adams|7 years ago|reply
I beg to differ - I have 2 hotspots from Verizon (15GB each -> 30GB total/month) and they support my full-time work as a remote developer. I have to avoid watching HD video, but that's effectively the only restriction I have.
[+] [-] maverick5|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mindslight|7 years ago|reply
Not to take away from the larger point about US data plans, which is generally true.
But the fundamental market philosophy of the US is to exploit individuals' laziness. If you're unwilling to do the basic modern necessity of taking control of your phone, then you perfectly fit the profile to be their victim. If you're just walking into a carrier store/kiosk and asking them what they overtly market, you basically have "$$$" written on your forehead.
Practically - if I needed an LTE connection, I'd setup a fixed antenna aimed at a Sprint tower on a Clearwire-settlement plan, look into buying a grandfathered Mobley device on eBay, or accept a slightly lower speed for a consumer "unlimited data" plan (eg $55/mo for 3Mbps at Cricket).
[+] [-] turtlebits|7 years ago|reply
My other phone is in Mint SIM, which costs $20/mo for 8gb of LTE and works great, and tethering is shared with regular data.
[+] [-] vasco|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] atomical|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] toby|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] denzil_correa|7 years ago|reply
According to OECD, the Purchasing Power Parities (PPP) for India is 17.729 , UK is 0.691 and US is 1.0 [0]. That's a huge difference and hence, ignoring the purchasing power will not give you a full picture about the "cost".
[0] https://data.oecd.org/conversion/purchasing-power-parities-p...
[+] [-] chewz|7 years ago|reply
Prices could be mitigated by competition but usualy we have oligopoly, by regulators (EU and roaming charges) or by taxation (licences to operate).
I always laugh when similar company with similar shareholders charge 15 times more in one country then in another.
Digi Malaysia extending prepaid for 1 year 68 ringit 15$, dtac Thailand 1$. Both owned by Telenor.
[+] [-] mruts|7 years ago|reply
PPP is only relevent for things that have different prices in different countries (housing, food, etc). There are many things that cost roughly the same wherever you are: oil, macbooks, cell towers, etc.
As a general rule, the easier something is to arbitrage, the less PPP matters. The cost of arbitrage includes transport costs, taxes, and depreciation schedules (vegetables would be cheaper in India vs US because they are hard to transport, for example).
Of course this is only relevent if the US companies aren’t making crazy margins (I don’t personally know, but I suspect it’s possible).
[+] [-] PeakShot|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Tsubasachan|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chrismeller|7 years ago|reply
Who knows if that accounts for all of the difference, but excluding that factor makes the whole thing useless.
[+] [-] KorematsuFred|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] goombastic|7 years ago|reply
The entire company is run by morons.
[+] [-] davchana|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thewizardofaus|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mayankkaizen|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rock_artist|7 years ago|reply
https://golantelecom.co.il/web/
Overall, Israel is a very expensive country excluding mobile plans...
[+] [-] the_mitsuhiko|7 years ago|reply
I think what matters more than the price for the gigabyte is what you get in service for that. I'm absolutely happy to pay 50 EUR or more a month if the service is good.
[+] [-] SXX|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lozf|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kylehotchkiss|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] inapis|7 years ago|reply
Indian 4G rarely gives the 40-50 Mbps or more that you can see in other countries
[+] [-] hinkley|7 years ago|reply
They were getting 50% packet loss and so the throughput was maybe a tenth of what we were hoping for. Streaming really hates high packet loss rates, unless you've built FEC into the protocol (and we hadn't)
[+] [-] monksy|7 years ago|reply
JIO 4mbps symetric
Vodafone: 8mbps down (but it was capped per month on a limit)
I got 60mbps down on the CMHK in Hong Kong.
[+] [-] monksy|7 years ago|reply
There are service outages, issues with coverage, and there are serve limits on the data.
I used JIO and had an average about 4mbps speed. Also, there has been concerns about censoring sites. (see r/india.. they blocked reddit in the last week)
I paid about 199inr (~$3) and got 2gbs per day for a month.
[+] [-] virtualwhys|7 years ago|reply
Not bad at all, blazing fast compared to most WiFi connections here in northern India (Himachal Pradesh).
Now if the power would stop cutting out... maybe in a few more years :)
[+] [-] adiM|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bluedino|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] RoadieRoller|7 years ago|reply
Jio, will soon become a monopoly and as the article says, might jack up prices when they have the bigger slice of the pie. An acquisition of the second best then would seal the low price game and everything will go up then. Thats what Airtel was doing when they were number 1 a while back.
[+] [-] ThrustVectoring|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] praveenweb|7 years ago|reply
Jio comes bundled with value added free services like JioTV, JioCinema, JioMagazine, JioMusic(JioSaavn now) and bunch of other apps.
India is a price sensitive market and hence Jio would keep prices lower for as long as possible to keep other players out. Jio is already posting profits.
They are in it for the long game. The bottomline is that prices may not go up anytime soon.
[+] [-] baybal2|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mruts|7 years ago|reply
But because 4G is the only way to get internet, it actually becomes more expensive very quickly. I route all of my internet traffic through my phone or through my 4G mobile hotspot.
So I think the real reason that the data is cheaper is because 4G is the only way to get data, if your a consumer or a business. So the pricing reflects that.
Because in the first world we have fiber optics, this allows mobile companies to charge a ton of money per Gb, since no one is downloading large files with it anyways.
[+] [-] davchana|7 years ago|reply
In 2012 the data in India was too much expensive, like a GB or two for a Dollar. Around 2017, It was About Two GB every day for 30 days for Two Dollars total. Amazing. 4G. Good coverage. Airtel. Here in US ATT gives me 3GB for a whole month, & extra $15 if I go over 3 for next 1 GB.
Infact from few days I am trying to find a cheaper data only prepaid pay-as-you-go Sim for my second phone.
[+] [-] ggambetta|7 years ago|reply
[1] Technically less, because the £12 includes calls and SMS as well.
[+] [-] whack|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] grwthckrmstr|7 years ago|reply
It's one of the few things I feel blessed about while living in this country.
[+] [-] snambi|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ofcrpls|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] addicted|7 years ago|reply
It’s very possible that the strategy may not work, but if it does (and the article provides no evidence it won’t, in fact, it reveals that Jio is actually making more money per subscriber than the average telco), then there is no reason to believe prices will need to go up.
[+] [-] temp_warrior|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ash663|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] geodel|7 years ago|reply
Also not related to data plan but 22 out of 30 most polluted cities are in India. Just to put in perspective that their is more to life than cheap data plans. Broadband/data price is oddly a perennial obsession for relatively well earning group of people here.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/04/health/most-polluted-cities-i...
[+] [-] kkarakk|7 years ago|reply
What does impact me daily and affects QoL that I personally can affect? Internet speeds,Bandwidth rates and the quality of my next meal.