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tomz17
join:2004-01-09
Newark, NJ | Other countries The "we need to charge more to provide this service otherwise our networks will overload" is complete bunk.
I was recently in Poland on a trip. A prepaid starter kit sim card for my unlocked cell phone cost $3 (and came with $7 of starter credit). With a $10 refill, I got a 15 month expiration, 1000 text messages, and free calls to one phone number. Incoming calls/texts are free in europe (caller pays). I could FREELY roam on two (out of four) national networks in Poland. Outgoing calls cost me $0.02 anywhere in the country, and $0.04 per minute to the USA using skype to go ($0.02 call to skype warsaw to go number + skype US rate of $0.02). THAT CELLULAR INTERNATIONAL CALL IS CHEAPER (by about a factor of 2) THAN A LOCAL CALL FROM WITHIN THE US WITH THE CHEAPEST PREPAID CELL PROVIDER HERE!
3G data cost about $5 for 500 megs. It actually gets cheaper if you buy larger packages. (AT&T, the only option for prepaid GSM data in the US, charges $5 for 1 megabyte!)
Furthermore, this PREPAID sim card roams pretty much anywhere on the planet (even satellite networks when placed in a sat phone) for really respectable rates. (US prepaid sim cards roam only in canada and mexico, and the postpaid sim cards will rape your wallet if you so much as look at your phone in a foreign country)
The population density of Poland is 122 per km^2, the population density of the US is 32 people per km^2.
Everyone there can afford AND USES 3G data and voice! It is marketed, and encouraged actually. There are no discernible problems with capacity, and nobody is shouting "pay us more or the sky will fall." Almost everyone I know has a smart phone, and actually uses data. We invented the phone, the internet, the computer, and the transistor. Why are we in the telecom dark ages? $13 in Poland got me a new sim card, 700 minutes of calls anywhere in the country, 1000 texts, free calls to 1 phone number, 500 megs of data, and a 15 month expiration date! Why do we accept that we need to pay $100+/month for a cell phone with data? | |
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Same comments we already discussed , and im sure multiple times before it.
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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!" | | |
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| reply to tomz17
This is so true. The degree of gouging that goes on in the US is utterly astrounding. It`s disgusting how much money people are forced to pay for wireless service.
Not everyone makes over $100,000 a year. | |
| reply to tomz17
I live in the UK.
I have a pay-as-you-go SIM from a more recent upstart network (one with among the best 3G coverage), and for my £10 topup (doesn't expire), I get 300 text messages, 150MB of data, unlimited same-network calls, free Skype (it uses the voice network to make voice calls) and free MSN. I also get my original £10.
If I wanted more data? £5 per month for 2GB, which I am not supposed to tether with but I can (not enforced), or £10 for 1GB where I can legitimately tether. Voice calls cost 20p/min.
Another nice thing about this is that if said network ups its rates or displeases me in some way, I'll just get a free SIM on another network and put it in my unlocked, unbranded phone, get my number ported within a couple of days (might be changing to a matter of minutes soon) and continue.
I could even get a rolling monthly SIM-free contract, where I get tons of value for not having a subsidised phone. | |
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