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Bigger country = more customers (should)= cheaper rates


Deals in Europe are unbelievably cheap compared to the US


The cost of supporting a national network in a country as big and as populated as the USA is huge.
 
My next iPhone will probably be on Sprint. By the time I upgrade, LTE should be mostly rolled out. Hopefully they'll still have unlimited data by then...

The cost of supporting a national network in a country as big and as populated as the USA is huge.

Part of the problem is we still have a lot of sparsely populated areas in the country. Carriers are expected to cover everywhere, but many cell cites actually result in lost revenue, so they have to make it up in the rates they charge.
 
It says the 50GB plan with 10 devices is $800 a month. That's $80 per line ... Horrible!

I am unlimited everything on Tmobile for $45 a line! No restrictions / no limits!

You can get metro pcs for $40 a line!

How is having the AT&T name worth double that?

PS I have an iPhone 5 factory unlocked running a very snappy 3G in Atlanta!
 
What a joke, I'm sure T-mobile and Sprint will have fun with this in their TV ads making fun of AT&T's math calculations. :D
 
And I bet my "unlimited" plan will still get throttled at 2-3GB. Greedy bastards.

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The cost of supporting a national network in a country as big and as populated as the USA is huge.

This argument is complete nonsense as most people live in densely populated areas. And it can easily be refuted by their soaring profits.
 
ATT is muts! A smart business with PBX could provide calls to all employees. All they need for each phone is internet access, which TMobile can provide unlimited access and text for $30. Mulitply by each handset and the savings is huge.
 
There's no capitalism at work here. :rolleyes:

It's a heavily regulated and restricted market, controlled by the government. State regulation of industry is the same thing as kings of yore, granting their favorite friends land and power. There's nothing capitalistic about the communications industry, if that were the case, options that were too expensive would fail to win money from consumers' wallets.

When the market is unfairly restricted and favors are granted by the government, prices can skyrocket without natural limits like those imposed by demand. The price you're seeing is the price paid to your political masters for babysitting, who call it 'protecting consumers'.


you are so wrong its not even funny.
 
I don't know where you live but I'm going to go on a limb and say I'm pretty sure there are things in your country that are a lot more expensive than in the U.S. I've traveled the world, and cars, electronics, & food are a lot less expensive in the U.S., even CA and NY! than almost anywhere else on earth - for the same item (not that those things are inexpensive here either).

Also the tax burden for most European countries is about 20% higher than in the U.S., so there is that.

So enjoy your cheap data rate because you are likely way overpaying for everything else.

I happily pay high taxes for the social security our country has, plus I love the regulations that we have that prevent this absurd kind of pricing.

Only thing that sucks, Apple products are more expensive than they are in the U.S. :p
 
Ummm, where is the million GB for a million dollars a month plan? I can't find it. Maybe that's coming soon.
 
I happily pay high taxes for the social security our country has, plus I love the regulations that we have that prevent this absurd kind of pricing.

Right, regulation that prevents market pricing on data, but allows absurd pricing on basic food and clothes. Sounds like a winner to me. (Not to mention you have no idea if you are buying steak if its from a cow or a horse). :D

Also, still no idea where you are from, but you have given a hint it's not Portugal, Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, or Croatia.
 
Right, regulation that prevents market pricing on data, but allows absurd pricing on basic food and clothes. Sounds like a winner to me. (Not to mention you have no idea if you are buying steak if its from a cow or a horse). :D

Also, still no idea where you are from, but you have given a hint it's not Portugal, Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, or Croatia.

I believe he (or she) could be from Holland. It is written below his (or her) name on the left.
 
I could be really bad at math, but wouldn't a 1.5 Mbps home DSL connection (which use to go for $19.99) be able to hit 500 GB in a month?

Even though the technology is cheaper than ever, AT&T is now offering 1/10th of the data for 25 times the price.
 
I wonder how many government groups are forking out on this rip off scam, milk em dry.

Well they usually know its a bad deal before they even sign.





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AT&T you are ridiculous w those prices.
 
I know this is for shared plans, but gimme a friggin break! Thats ridiculous.

LOL. Seriously, the telecom companies got some balls asking for such rates.

Boy, I'm sure glad I kept my AT&T unlimited data plan from my original ipad! I never let it lapse, and have since transferred it to my ipad mini. I ditched my smartphone altogether, and just make free calls on my mini. Heck, the thing is about as big as the latest Samsung phones. Lol.

It works great for me. I have a free google phone # so I can make & receive calls & texts. Missed calls go right to voicemail and are even transcribed(sometimes with hilarious results) to my email account. I also use Skype & iMessage. And now facebook is rolling out a free calling feature. With my $30 unlimited data plan that's all I pay, and don't have to worry.

Even tho I can afford it, I just refuse to pay the greedy telecoms over $100 a month for a smartphone. It's crazy...and by the looks of things, only going to get worse.

You do have options.
 
Part of the problem is we still have a lot of sparsely populated areas in the country. Carriers are expected to cover everywhere, but many cell cites actually result in lost revenue, so they have to make it up in the rates they charge.

Meanwhile in Finland:

- Our population density is less than half of the US
- The biggest cell operator has about 90% land coverage - with a 3G data network. 2G/voice is practically 100% coverage everywhere.
- And it costs about $20 for data plans of 20GB/month, $30 for 50GB/month (including 4G LTE speeds).

We even have cheaper operators with $10/month unlimited data plans at 3G speeds, but their networks don't extend to the most rural areas.
 
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Meanwhile in Finland:

- Our population density is less than half of the US
- The biggest cell operator has about 90% land coverage - with a 3G data network. 2G/voice is practically 100% coverage everywhere.
- And it costs about $20 for data plans of 20GB/month, $30 for 50GB/month (including 4G LTE speeds).

We even have cheaper operators with $10/month unlimited data plans at 3G speeds, but their networks don't extend to the most rural areas.

Area of Finland: 340,000 km^2
Area of US: 9,800,000 km^2

It's not just the population density, it's the overall land mass that needs to be covered by cell towers.
 
Yessss

Yea it is much more expensive in the USA. My friend relocated to London for work for 2 years and he said the pricing is so much cheaper compared to the US.


I'm amazed you Yanks stand for this sort of thing. It's not unusual for us humble, buck-toothed Brits to get unlimited data, unlimited texts and unlimited talktime for an average of £35-40 a month (about $60). And that's with paying about £60 upfront for the iPhone 5, so it's not exactly like you're paying through the nose.

I appreciate all carriers are thieving immoral bastards, but you guys seem to have it a lot worse than we do. Is there something I'm missing, or do we have it just as bad? :eek:


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The USA is way larger. That's why in the smaller countries even the farmers can get 1gb internet for cheap. USA has sooooooo much more land to cover.


Area of Finland: 340,000 km^2
Area of US: 9,800,000 km^2

It's not just the population density, it's the overall land mass that needs to be covered by cell towers.
 
To all those posting cheap plans for unlimited data: Do they guarantee the bandwidth throughout the month irrespective of usage or after a certain usage they shrink it down.
 
Come on, these are really plans for small business owners, not individual customers.

If I had a small business, I think this would be a great option actually. Then again, I actually did the math here rather than just complain about it. :rolleyes:

If you did 25 individual lines, that's $100/month ($70 for unlimited voice & text + 30 for the 3GB plan). That's $2500 per month. You are forced to do the 3GB plan because almost everyone will do more than 300MB and so you either have overages or excess.

The 50GB plan is $500 plus $30/line. If you have 25 lines (the max), it's $1250/month. That's 2GB average per employee. Some will use less, some more. Even if you did have massive overages, you could go over by 83 GB (@ 15/GB) and still come out cheaper.

Even at the low end it's pretty reasonable. 15 devices * $30 = $450 + 300 = 750/15 devices = $50/month per device for unlimited talk & text + 2GB of data.

This! In my office alone we pay for something like 75-80 smart phones. Unfortunately with the way our company is setup, we simply get reimbursed for our own plan rather than all use a shared plan like this. What does this do though? It means that for 75 smart phones in my office, the company is shelling out around $70-80 a month per user. That works out to at least $5250 a month (as high as $6,000). Using your math (which I found to be pretty accurate), that would work out to $3750 which is a savings of at least $1500. Multiply that by 12 months = 18,000 a year in savings. That's well on our way to another low level Admin to do a lot of daily crap we all have to do and complain about doing because we don't have enough Admins!
 
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The cost of supporting a national network in a country as big and as populated as the USA is huge.

Something people across the pond almost always ignore when they piously comment on US carriers. Most European countries are the size of US states.
 
Isn't this just further proof that AT&T could support unlimited data, but rather switch us to a tiered model to just make more money and the fact they know we don't have any real competition to jump to?

(I'm a developer so we test on all the major networks)
 
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