So i'm in india - a look at mobile internet rates:

[vshah]

on the country's largest carrier (airtel, which is also the 5th largest carrier in the world, and 3rd larges carrier in the world ranked by home country subscribers)

250mb: 4 dollars
2gb: 14 dollars
5gb: 23 dollars

also you can add/remove these services at any time, just be sending an SMS to the airtel service number.

the automated service features of Indian carries are light years ahead of US ones. it makes me sad .

 

[postmortemIA]

ever heard of thing called "population density" ?

 

[ShaitanTheGreat]

Well, let's be nice here now. It's a lot more than just "population density." The biggest things going here are also (1) the standard of living of the American lifestyle versus the average Indian and (2) the level of quality of service demanded in the United States versus the country of India. Both of these make it cost quite a bit more money to deliver a basic cell phone signal to a customer.

I could go on a bit more about this, but that could take all day.

 

[The Green Bean]

I'm paying $4 dollars a month for unlimited mobile internet.

 

[shortylickens]

Well, let's be nice here now. It's a lot more than just "population density." The biggest things going here are also (1) the standard of living of the American lifestyle versus the average Indian and (2) the level of quality of service demanded in the United States versus the country of India. Both of these make it cost quite a bit more money to deliver a basic cell phone signal to a customer.

I could go on a bit more about this, but that could take all day.

You may as well. Newbs who dont contribute get banned in a week.

 

[sgrinavi]

I'm paying $4 dollars a month for unlimited mobile internet.

Where?

 

[annafranklin]

different country have the different plans and all depends up on the population and the ppl of that country how much they can effort to pay for the services and also depend upon the country economy .

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

well even take well developed nations like South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and you will see unlimited data for insanely nice prices. Also there isn't the issue of bandwidth and capacity issues despite extremely high population density. Unlike AT&T which can't even handle a football game.....

 

[ew915]

Sure these prices look like peanuts if indians were getting paid as much as the average US worker.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

lol i like how everyone rushes to the defense of US carriers with these threads but will flame them to death in every other thread when its pretty obvious that regardless of pricing, the US carriers have the worst managed policies and phone issues when compared to the rest of the world.

 

[Headcase_Fargone]

Well, let's be nice here now. It's a lot more than just "population density." The biggest things going here are also (1) the standard of living of the American lifestyle versus the average Indian and (2) the level of quality of service demanded in the United States versus the country of India. Both of these make it cost quite a bit more money to deliver a basic cell phone signal to a customer.

I could go on a bit more about this, but that could take all day.

Quality of service? What country are you living in? American cell service is shit, to put it politely.

 

[vshah]

 

[Brian Stirling]

When the labor rates are much lower the costs will be lower. When the price for the land to place the towers is a lot less this also lowers the cost. The hardware costs will be largely the same but that's not the big hitter for cost -- buying/leasing the land, building the towers, supporting the operation -- all of this cost less when land prices and labor rates are much lower. And, if the carriers don't provide $300 discounts on the purchase of the phone for a 24 month contract the monthly cost could be $12.50 less just for this...

If, for argument sake, the cost of land and labor is 20% of nominal USA rates then it would be possible to provide cellular service at, say, 25% the USA rate.


Brian

 

[Strk]

I'd be ok with our data rates if messaging was treated as data and not something separate. It's stupid to spend $20 a month of a few kilobytes of data.

 

[upsdriver]

ITT: People trying to justify their phone bills to themselves.

The US has the most backwards cellular industry compared to both Europe and Asia. And yet, it looks like people jump to their defense when they see another country do it better.

 

[currahee440]

Convert it to the local currency there and I guarantee you it's expensive for most Indians to afford that.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

This thread is so bizarre. Someone has infrastructure that is better than yours, and instead of trying to figure out how they do it so you can replicate it at home, you are trying to figure out how they do it so you can insist that you can't?

 

[vshah]

Land values in major metros on India are as high or higher compared to big cities in the US. Demand for space is massive and the supply is much smaller than in the states.

I agree that If you look at an average (income wise) Indian, it's still expensive. But if seen from the point of view of the middle class upwards (those who can afford an unsubsidized $500+ smartphone in the first place), it's insanely cheap.

Even for those who can't afford smart phones, how does $1service activation and $0.00189 per SMS / $0.02 per minute of talk time sound? This is without the special offers like $2 for 1000 texts that are available all the time.

 

[GTaudiophile]

ITT: People trying to justify their phone bills to themselves.

The US has the most backwards cellular industry compared to both Europe and Asia. And yet, it looks like people jump to their defense when they see another country do it better.

Worth quoting.

America is ASLEEP at the wheel when it comes to 99.9% of things in life. They are too busy caring about reality TV, sports, and other opiates for the masses.

 

[Brian Stirling]

Land values in major metros on India are as high or higher compared to big cities in the US. Demand for space is massive and the supply is much smaller than in the states.

I agree that If you look at an average (income wise) Indian, it's still expensive. But if seen from the point of view of the middle class upwards (those who can afford an unsubsidized $500+ smartphone in the first place), it's insanely cheap.

Even for those who can't afford smart phones, how does $1service activation and $0.02 per SMS /minute of talk time sound? This is without the special offers like $2 for 1000 texts that are available all the time.

Land values are higher in India than the USA -- how does $5000/ft^2 in Manhattan grab you? Where in India are land rate within two orders of magnitude of that?


Brian

 

[Brian Stirling]

Convert it to the local currency there and I guarantee you it's expensive for most Indians to afford that.

Ding, ding, ding -- we have a winner!

When you convert the prices to the local wage levels I doubt the AVERAGE Indian would think there cellular rates where all that great. And, once again, the USA rates are based on giving the user a $300 discount on the purchase of the phone equaling about $12.50/month.

How much do the Chinese pay? Vietnamese?


Brian

 

[vshah]

Land values are higher in India than the USA -- how does $5000/ft^2 in Manhattan grab you? Where in India are land rate within two orders of magnitude of that?


Brian

major metros - downtown new delhi, bombay, etc. easily $1000+ / ft^2

also $0.25 vs $0.0018932 for an SMS. that's a couple orders of magnitude, isn't it?

 

[currahee440]

Worth quoting.

America is ASLEEP at the wheel when it comes to 99.9% of things in life. They are too busy caring about reality TV, sports, and other opiates for the masses.

http://zlstudios.net/2011/10/verizon-alone-makes-us-the-top-lte-country/

There are only 26 countries in the world with LTE according to that article and the US is at the top. I'm sure Verizon's 40Mbit/s LTE speed is deserving of that crown.

The only thing I won't be able to understand is why we can have wireless internet at 40Mbit but landlines stuck at 5Mbit..

 

[upsdriver]

The only thing I won't be able to understand is why we can have wireless internet at 40Mbit but landlines stuck at 5Mbit..

I live in Boston. For wireless, I can choose from Verizon, Sprint, ATT, TMobile, and the other small players. For a landline, I can get Comcast and nothing else. Comcast has no incentive to improve their infrastructure when I and everyone in my neighborhood has no other broadband alternatives.

 

[vshah]

http://zlstudios.net/2011/10/verizon-alone-makes-us-the-top-lte-country/

There are only 26 countries in the world with LTE according to that article and the US is at the top. I'm sure Verizon's 40Mbit/s LTE speed is deserving of that crown.

The only thing I won't be able to understand is why we can have wireless internet at 40Mbit but landlines stuck at 5Mbit..

also: wireless requires a tower, while landline improvements like FIOS require a lot more cabling/infrastructure to be deployed.