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Netflix is Testing a Mobile-Only, $3 Subscription To Make Its Service More Affordable (techcrunch.com)
Netflix is testing a cut-price mobile-only subscription, priced as low as $3 for some, as it explores new packages aimed at widening its appeal in Asia and other emerging markets. TechCrunch: CEO Reed Hastings told Bloomberg last week that the company would test lower-priced packages and it hasn't taken long for those experiments to come to light. The first reports are from Malaysia, where Netflix quietly rolled out a mobile-only tier priced at RM17, or around $4, each month. That's half the price of the company's next cheapest package -- 'Basic' -- which retails for RM33, or around $7.90, per month in Malaysia. A Netflix spokesperson confirmed the Malaysia trial. They added that similar trials are "running in a few countries" although they declined to provide details. It remains to be seen if this new subscription tier will roll out to other parts of the world.
Yea, but do you realize how much you're paying your mobile provider?
Over in Europe... 20 euro per month... unlimited 3G, or up to some absurdly high limit, 4G... I just tether my laptop to my phone when I get home... free international roaming... I'm pretty sure that type of service doesn't exist in the US for this kind of price point yet.
Cell phone plans are much more expensive in the US (probably in part due to population density. More infrastructure needed per person than in Europe. Poor Canada has it even worse- lower density and even more expensive than the US.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
I blame competition. There are markets (i.e. countries) in Europe the size of a smaller US state on the East Coast with 4 or even more cellphone carriers competing for customers.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Canada's cellphone rates rank among highest in 8-country study, report says
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
I get T-Mobile in the US for $40/month with unlimited everything (who still uses 3G?) with Netflix.
Does this include unlimited use as a mobile hotspot, so that a prospective customer who owns both a phone and a PC can make room in his or her budget for this $40 per month recurring expense by canceling the fiber, cable, or DSL subscription for his or her PC?
Cell phone plans are not "much more expensive" in the US than any other western country. For example, a BT mobile unlimited plan is around $55 in the UK (and you need to sign a 12 month contract). Sure, you can find cheaper carriers, just like in the US, but for the same service level it is roughly equivalent. I know, all the EU geniuses will mod me down for daring to speak the truth, but oh well.
The United States also has four main carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile), and numerous mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) that use their networks. But US carriers also use two different 3G protocols (Verizon and Sprint on CDMA2000 and AT&T and T-Mobile on UMTS). Devices sold in a carrier's store tend to ship locked to one carrier, either explicitly through SIM issuer checks or implicitly through supported frequency bands. Devices sold in other major electronics stores (such as Best Buy) tend to have a separate section for each carrier with the phones that are locked to that carrier: these are the AT&T handsets, these are the Verizon handsets, etc. If you're with a carrier for a year, the carrier might make an unlock code available to you after interaction with a human.
$70 is actually on the high end for an unlimited plan in the US and their lowest cost plan that doesn't have a set quota of broadband data (they're all "unlimited") is $50.
Does the "Free mobile (FR) unlimited" include tethering? Is it really "unlimited" broadband or does it throttle after certain thresholds? Because once you omit tethering from your requirements for a plan, prices drop dramatically in the US and in most cases, Verizon and AT&T notwithstanding, all data plans are "unlimited" but with throttling or data deprioritization.
T-Mobile's lowest unlimited plan is probably their MetroPCS $40 a month plan which includes 10G before any throttling takes place. $50 buys "unlimited" (ie throttling only when the network is busy) data, and includes 5G of tethering.
You can probably find similar deals from Sprint, and of course there are plenty of MVNOs.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
One device, no HD, delivered to an amazon stick instead of to my phone. $8. They're going to make the same thing available to phones for $4? In that case, I'll throw out my prime tv stick and connect my old Nexus 4 with the failed digitizer to my TV...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You're cherry picking. We can throw out so cheap, no named mobile companies in the US as well
They hide search for a reason. They only provide value when you're not searching for popular shows and movies and seeing that none of them are there. It's a bad excuse, because I know what's there and I just want to go find it quickly. They also make that list that you hand-curated hard to find, because they don't want you to see how often their licensing changes.
And if not, why can't I root it and make it emulate the 3 inch screen on my phone?
Anything is mobile if you don't mind carrying it around with you
(Extension cord sold separately)
If they remove the "SafetyNet" requirement on Android, perhaps I will rejoin as a customer.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
BT is a premium brand more equivalent to Verizon in the US. A quick google shows that the equivalent line on Verizon is $75. Plus, with American carriers you never actually pay the price that is quoted, there are always all sorts of taxes and fees added on AFTER the cost. So (not with Verizon myself), I imagine, what you actually pay is probably closer to $100- almost double the price.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
"Belgium is almost 3 times as expensive as that for unlimited data and makes no distinction between 3g/4g. I pay $40 for 8GB/month"
Luxembourg here, I pay 15€ for unlimited calls to all landlines and all mobile operators and also unlimited SMS and MMS and 'unlimited' data (slowed after 4 GB)
It is not free. It is factored into whatever price you are paying your mobile and ISP providers.
Having "To Make Its Service More Affordable" in the title is misleading in my opinion, since offering a cell-phone only option would be a DIFFERENT service that the multi-device service that people have now. For Netflix to gain subscribers in a market they have maxxed-out, they will need to make existing customers (pretty much everybody) into MULTI-subscribers: Short Game: Make savings appeal to non-family users, such as single people and to folks who want affordable private account outside existing shared Netflix account. End Game: Nickel-and-dime existing multi-device users for every cell phone as much as possible. Long Run: REDUCE COSTS ONLY for cell phone-only consumers and RAISE THE COST FOR THE CURRENT DEFINITION OF EVERYBODY ELSE: existing multi-device subscribers, pay more for less.
How are they determining a mobile device is being used and can the identifiers be spoofed?
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
that's just the way it works:
raise prices
fracture market
raise prices again
repeat.
Just another second banana
The person is lying or speaking about an old plan
http://mobile.free.fr/
Per there site it cap
19 € 99 / month
15,99 € / month
for Freebox subscribers
100 GB Internet
SMS calls, unlimited MMS
Abroad :
25Gb internet (in 3G)
from + 50 destinations
Calls, SMS, unlimited MMS
from Europe, DOM, USA, Canada
Australia, South Africa,
Israel, New Zealand.
I get T-Mobile in the US for $40/month with unlimited everything
On T-Mobile's website, I'm seeing $70 for the first line, $50 for the second lines and a Netflix subscription, the third line free, and $20 for the fourth line. Your $40 per line figure is thus correct for three lines. So how would I go about finding others with whom to pool my money for a multi-line subscription?
David Lynch does not like it ...
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
YoU aLl HaVe PhOnEs, DoN't YoU?!
For this package, available content has been reduced to one film - "Starship Troopers" - and one episode of "The Big Bang Theory".. the one where Sheldon is annoying.