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Not to suggest that American telecoms are good — because they aren’t; they’re terrible and their tactics, pricing, and customer service are extortionate — but the issues around data caps I think are more tied to a country’s geography than most realize.

Canada, USA, Russia, Australia — they all have massive hinterlands that require boatloads of towers to provide coverage for very very low population density. This is, in my experience, why data pricing tends to be so much higher there; “nationwide” roaming doesn’t come cheap.
Here in Finland we have really low population density, 5.5 million inhabitants in 338 000 square kilometers(130502.53 square miles). We are mostly forrest and lakes :D
Being more precise in Finland 18 inhabitants per km2, (USA is 36 per km2). Even with low population density our 4G network covers 99% of inhabitants of Finland with good reception and speed 😁

Sorry this goes little bit too much show off, i hope that my main message would be that it is possible to get great 4G networks in low density areas and push your operators to do so.

Links to info:
Finland Population Density
USA Population Density
Finland 4G Network coverage 1
Finland 4G Network coverage 2
WHO HAS THE BEST 4G NETWORK IN THE NORDICS?
 
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Canada doesn't have 300+ million people to clog it all up and there aren't many moose or polar bears with cell phones either.
Because there is a maximum cap how many devices a single carrier can serve? If you want to talk about the number of devices overwhelming a system, the relevant number is population density not total population. And there are plenty of countries that have much higher population density than the U.S.. Of course, that number wouldn't be very relevant either because what matters is the local population density at the cell tower level. But if you want you can make a start by comparing population density per U.S. state with that of other (often smaller) countries.

To give you examples, city states like Macao, Monaco, Hong Kong, Singapore have population densities between about 21'000 and 7000 inhabitants per km². The only city 'state' in the U.S., District of Columbia, has a population density of about 4000 inhabitants per km². If you go down to the county level in the U.S., you finally find some high numbers with the four boroughs of NYC (w/o Staten Island) topping the list with population densities between about 27'000 and 8000 inhabitants per km², which puts NYC into the same range as the afore-mentioned city states. As a comparison, the top 10 London boroughs have population densities in the range from 16'000 to 10'000.

If we go even lower and look at city districts, in the top 100, only five are in the U.S. (four of them part of Manhattan, one in the Bronx), seven in Europe (France, Spain, Italy), six in Africa, six in South America and the rest, 76, in Asia. So sure, Manhattan has an excuse for poor coverage (not just because of density but also buildings) but generally there are plenty of other areas around the world with equal or higher population density than even the most populated areas inside the U.S..
 
Here in Finland we have really low population density, 5.5 million inhabitants in 338 000 square kilometers(130502.53 square miles). We are mostly forrest and lakes :D
Being more precise in Finland 18 inhabitants per km2, (USA is 36 per km2). Even with low population density our 4G network covers 99% of inhabitants of Finland with good reception and speed 😁

Sorry this goes little bit too much show off, i hope that my main message would be that it is possible to get great 4G networks in low density areas and push your operators to do so.

Links to info:
Finland Population Density
USA Population Density
Finland 4G Network coverage 1
Finland 4G Network coverage 2
WHO HAS THE BEST 4G NETWORK IN THE NORDICS?
With regard to population density, it is the extremes that are difficult and/or expensive. Finnland has one advantage though, it is pretty flat.
 
Here in Finland we have really low population density, 5.5 million inhabitants in 338 000 square kilometers(130502.53 square miles). We are mostly forrest and lakes :D
Being more precise in Finland 18 inhabitants per km2, (USA is 36 per km2). Even with low population density our 4G network covers 99% of inhabitants of Finland with good reception and speed 😁

Sorry this goes little bit too much show off, i hope that my main message would be that it is possible to get great 4G networks in low density areas and push your operators to do so.

Links to info:
Finland Population Density
USA Population Density
Finland 4G Network coverage 1
Finland 4G Network coverage 2
WHO HAS THE BEST 4G NETWORK IN THE NORDICS?
Totally understand, and I’m with you — I wish the telecoms in the US were half as good as many international options.

That said, in places like Canada, Australia, US, Russia, etc. you have massive amounts of space to cover. The state of Alaska, for example, is more than 5 times larger than the whole of Finland (with a tiny fraction the number of people), and that’s just one state! And most Americans expect a “nationwide” plan, where they won’t have to roam or pay higher rates in these places. Put in those terms, it’s understandable why it costs a heck of a lot more to provide coverage, even compared to a country like Finland (although that’s not to say US Telcoms aren’t greedy, terrible companies, because that’s also true!).
 
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That said, in places like Canada, Australia, US, Russia, etc. you have massive amounts of space to cover. The state of Alaska, for example, is more than 5 times larger than the whole of Finland (with a tiny fraction the number of people), and that’s just one state! And most Americans expect a “nationwide” plan, where they won’t have to roam or pay higher rates in these places. Put in those terms, it’s understandable why it costs a heck of a lot more to provide coverage, even compared to a country like Finland (although that’s not to say US Telcoms aren’t greedy, terrible companies, because that’s also true!).
Within the EU you also have free roaming. How much it costs per user to provide coverage doesn't really change whether you chop up a territory into smaller parts or not. Look, it shouldn't cost more per user to provide coverage in Germany than Luxembourg if the population density distribution is similar in both countries.

It's not the size of a country that matters in that regard, what matters is its population density, or maybe if you want to be more precise, what percentage of its land mass (or the area that one think should be covered which could exclude significant parts of Alaska) falls below a certain population density where the distance between towers is limited by their geographic reach and not by their capacity for connections.
 
It's not the size of a country that matters in that regard, what matters is its population density
Ok. I’ll bite. I disagree that population density is all that matters, but let’s assume you’re right. And I also think using your EU-wide roaming as a comparison is also a red herring but, let’s assume you’re right there too. The population density of the EU is roughly three times higher than that of the US and over 20 times higher than that of Canada. I pick Canada because it’s another country with relatively expensive mobile coverage.

But of course population density isn’t the only factor. Terrain is a huge factor as well. You need far more towers to get decent coverage in very mountainous areas than, say, flatter lowlands. And that’s of course just one very much oversimplified example out of hundreds of factors.

As I’ve said all along, I’m not here to defend US or Canadian or any other tel-comms. Especially in the US, they charge extortionate rates for poor-to-mediocre service and operate very much in monopolistic manners. But you also can’t oversimplify and say that with some common sense reforms the US market would become like the EU overnight — they’re just vastly different markets and geographies.
 
So this doesn’t seem to actually work... Verizon iPhone 12 on 5G with this setting enabled and Unlimited data plan.

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I get true unlimited data. Version!!
 

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On the AT&T Unlimited Elite plan (their top tiered unlimited plan), after 100GB of use, they will slow your speeds if the network is busy.
Verizon doesn’t at 80$ a month.
 

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So this doesn’t seem to actually work... Verizon iPhone 12 on 5G with this setting enabled and Unlimited data plan.

View attachment 1674893
I'm having the same issue!
5G is active, allow more date on 5G is selected and still not able to download iOS updates over 5G!
Has anyone managed to do so or is it one of those features that hasnt been activated yet?
 
I'm having the same issue!
5G is active, allow more date on 5G is selected and still not able to download iOS updates over 5G!
Has anyone managed to do so or is it one of those features that hasnt been activated yet?
I came here just to say the same thing. Still not available on Verizon.

Edit: Nevermind! I got it to work by making sure hotspot was disabled, then turned 5G off and back on then toggled Allow More Data on 5G off and on again.
 
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