Is 10$/GB a reasonable price in the US?
It seems completely out of whack to me.
For comparison, I have 20GB + unlimited call/texts for 10e/month, with optional 2e/GB recharges, and that's not even the cheapest available offer
It seems completely out of whack to me.
For comparison, I have 20GB + unlimited call/texts for 10e/month, with optional 2e/GB recharges, and that's not even the cheapest available offer
More expensive for high data users, but less expensive for low data users. Flexibility is really king here, if 9 months of the year you use < 1 GB/month ($30/month) but want the option to have much more (e.g. emergency) and international travel, full speed hotspot, then it may be for you.
As to "why is the US/Canada so expensive?" Urban areas subsidies rural cellular. The US is hugely populated on the East and West coasts and a cellphone network that only targeted those population centers would be as cheap or even cheaper than Europe. But most networks are deploying LTE to middle-America where there are few people, and most cellular infrastructure loses money.
Networks have tried doing cellphone networks that only work within New York State, California, or Texas for example but people want the hypothetical ability to travel on the open road whenever and wherever they want.
What concerns me is the throttling at/after 15 GB. Other carriers have this, too, but it is supposedly "dependent on local load/conditions", and comments have led me to understand that, for some if not many people, they don't encounter the slowdown much in practice.
Whereas, being an MVNO and also perhaps having better software, Fi might be more strict and aggressive with the throttling? I don't know.
This may be a legacy plan; the only thing they seem to currently offer is $40/line/month for 4 lines ($70/month for one), but throttled at 50GB/month (not clear if this is by line or account), not 2GB/month.
It's a little cheaper than Fi list price at the level Bill Protection (essentially, unlimited with 15GB/line throttling threshold) kicks in ($160/4 lines with TMo vs $205 for Fi). But Fi does refund if you use less than 14 GB total, which may reduce the effective price depending on usage pattern.
Years ago AT&T sent me text right when I connected to my hotspot. I can’t see the tethering data use on AT&Ts dashboard but I can see usage per line.
I pay less money for access to more data in America then my American family does.
20 GBP is about $25 USD. T Mobile US is offering 50GB LTE at $70 per month. Adjusting your 15GB to that nets you $83 per month. T Mobile also offers free call/text/data roaming as well to dozens of other countries as part of the plan.
Three in the UK (http://www.three.co.uk/) have unlimited mobile data for £20/mo on a 12 month contract. You get:
- unlimited calls and texts in UK and 71 other countries
- unlimited mobile data in the UK in including use as a wifi hotspot
- up to 15GB data in 71 countries including use as a wifi hotspot
I basically travel non-stop. And wherever I land, I receive a message.
"Welcome to India we got you covered"
"Welcome to Russia we got you covered"
"Welcome to China we got you covered"
"Welcome to France we got you covered"
"Welcome to Uganda we got you covered"
I can live with 10 US$/GB
The only other issues were a lag between landing and service beginning. Took over half an hour on one trip, and over an hour on another. But this year I didn't have that lag, took maybe 5 minutes from when I turned on the phone after landing to it working.
Service speed was always good.
NB: I have a Nexus 5X. Some of the reception issues may have just been reception issues with that device compared to others, I don't know.
Won't work in Cuba or North Korea too I am sure.
* the $10/GB quote is pay as you go - unused data does not magically expire at the end of the billing cycle. While one can probably find a better promotional deal with a US carrier, those unclaimed gigabytes are unlikely to "roll over" to the next month.
* the rate is valid for any of Fi's international partners across 170 countries. Other US operators are likely to hit the user with roaming charges for voice + data
https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6201699?hl=en&ref_topic...
At the top end (6 group members) the max per user cost (if splitting evenly and not proportioned based on individual usage) is $50, compared to $80 for one user.
It's literally impossible to reach 250GB without paying extra. After being throttled the most you'd be able to download is 82.94GB, assuming you were downloading things non-stop at the maximum speed for 30 days.
Being able to land or drive into a country and have LTE working without having to do anything is amazing, especially when going through several countries.
Some places have seriously screwy cell pricing, signing up to this would be cheaper for data.
I pay, I think, $40/mo for 6GB with no phones and then $25/line to add unlocked phones. so I guess $90/6GB? I'm FAR from being on the cheapest plan in the world, but Google's plan starts at $35 for the same 2 lines, with NO data, then $10/GB?
So this groundbreaking new plan would be $5 more than I pay, and I ALREADY am sure I'm overpaying because I don't shop around.
For two lines, it's free after 10GB total. Each line is throttled (independent of number of lines) separately at 15GB.
I live in France, I'm subscribed to the most expensive operator (Orange), and even then I get unlimited call/text and 10 Gigabytes of data (in 4G) for less than 25 € per month (~roughly 28 dollars).
These prices look like a joke to me, but it might be a US thing.
There was rumors of free mobile acquiring T-Mobile sometime last year, that would have been awesome for US consumers...
That same 20€/mo plan gives 25GB of data to use abroad, which makes project fi a less interesting option in France.
With that said, data usage habits also did change between 2012 and now. I was happy with 500 Mo/month back in 2011. I would have trouble living with that now.
German prices are still weirdly high, mind you.
If you don't use much data, the price can be a good deal.
If you use a lot of data, other US carriers offer much better deals.
T-Mobile's Extended Range network (LTE Band 12) has substantially improved their rural coverage lately, but is only supported on the US version of major cell phones. If your phone was purchased outside the US/Canada, it probably didn't have Band 12 support. There's a table here (the specific model number is important, in this case): http://www.spectrumgateway.com/compatible-phones
If you weren't picking up LTE, that also suggests to me you might have been having issues related to Band 12.
But outside that, near any mid-sized population centers (where Band 12 isn't needed), you should've had a fast signal. Especially in California. I just ran a speed test on my phone, running T-Mobile in suburban California, and got 90 Mbps down / 40 Mbps up. That's faster than my home internet connection.
I end up spending ~$35-40/mo on average with peace of mind of unlimited data. The charge also caps out at 6GB I think so the max bill is $80 or something like that.
They cap the $10/GB at 6, so it's effectively an unlimited talk/text/data plan for $80/month which is about average in the US.
Additional data is $10/GB, and doesn’t expire. There is no point where it switches to unlimited like google fi.
I can choose the same three networks as Fi, but can’t roam between them.
Overall, Fi seems kinda overpriced, at least for me, because the monthly cost is so high (for unlimited voice and texts I don’t need).
It is way better than any of the “big three” cell plans though.
T-Mobile has unlimited data for $40/line for 4 lines, if everyone uses at least 2 GB that makes more sense.
It's the same in Canada: a Rogers data only plan is $60 CAD for first 5GB and $20 CAD for each 10GB after that...
I don't know why cellphone service is so expensive in the US, but it seems difficult to find anything cheaper than $20 a month. Typical plans here for a single user and ~10gb of data is going to be $40-$60 a month.
I suspect size has a lot to do with it. The US is the 3rd largest country in the world. Sure, Canada is bigger but at almost 1/10th the people and I suspect the country has far less coverage than the US.
Just look at coverage maps for the US then keep in mind how many square miles you're looking at and you can easily think "yeah, that can be expensive".
Yeah, they're pocketing a lot of profit and mostly relying on government funding to expand their networks but still, I just don't think we could go as cheap as laces like India.
The way the FCC handles spectrum also doesn't help.
To make proper comparisons on prices paid between countries, you need to consider income levels in the country in question, not just the price unto itself.
Works in 100+ countries for that price. I have Fi but live in Canada and travel and work in the US. Canadian phone plans are even more expensive and US roaming can add $30+ a month to a plan. Fi gives me $10/GB in Canada where I use very little data (work from home so always on wifi) and then $10/GB in the US without extra roaming options.
There is a data bill cap at $60 or 6GB of data. Once you hit $60 you still get full speed data up to 15GB then it throttles down.
$10/GB is great for variable data use. Some months I use 500MB so the bill is cheap. Other months I hit 4GB, bill is more but then I dont have to pay for data I am not using.
No charge data only SIM cards. I have three extra SIM cards that cost me nothing. One for an LTE hotspot, one for my wifes iPhone while in the US and a third that I will use for a backup LTE connection. They cost me nothing but the data used.