Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Could that be because they aren’t as densely populated by users so even if everyone with a phone has no data cap, they won’t overload the network? Which countries were that for example?



basically every european country? they've all had much larger datacaps than north america for years preceding 5g and most are quite densely inhabited.


I’m from Germany and I don’t know a single person with unlimited mobile data. That’s very rare here.


And yet probably everyone you know in EU has a cheaper Internet per GB that folks in the US. I have 2 SIM cards, one provider charges me $10/GB, while the other has a 2-GB packet for $6.


In Finland I pay 20€/mo for unlimited data (bandwidth capped at 200 Mbps). With some shopping around it can be cheaper/have more bandwidth. The pricing has been similar at least since 3g. And I recall having a similar deal in the UK five years ago.

There's also 28 GB EU roaming per month included, and 2.23€/GB after that.


Both of those prices are considerably more expensive than what I pay for service in the US. Even the cheaper one is more than 2x more expensive than what I pay per gig, including unlimited calls and texts + roaming to a lot of North America.


Who's your provider if you don't mind me asking?


Mint. 15GB for $20/mo works out to $1.33/GB while your 2GB plan is $3/GB.

But there are other MVNOs out there like tello which also have a 2GB/$6 plan in the US, and other MVNOs which offer unlimited data for like $25-30/mo like visible and US Cellular.

Plenty of cheap MVNOs out there these days.


Tello is actually what I use for my secondary data, Fi is my main (mostly because I travel somewhat and the data costs the same in all the destinations I care about without having to juggle SIM cards).

I'm not a good case study because I rarely use more than 2gb in a month, so Mint would come closer to $10 a gig... :)


£10/month pay as you go SIM for 30gb here in the UK and im sure there are better offers




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: