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India Beats UK and US on Mobile Data Price (bbc.com)

A study into the amount people pay for mobile data has found that the UK has some of the most expensive prices in Europe. From a report: The research, from price comparison site Cable.co.uk, found that one gigabyte (GB) of data cost $0.26 in India but $6.66 in the UK. The US had one of the most expensive rates -- with an average cost of $12.37 for the same amount of data. The results were "disappointing" said Cable's telecoms analyst Dan Howdle. "Despite a healthy UK marketplace, our study has uncovered that EU nations such as Finland, Poland, Denmark, Italy, Austria and France pay a fraction of what we pay in the UK for similar data usage. It will be interesting to see how our position is affected post-Brexit," he said. The study compared mobile data pricing in 230 countries around the world. The UK ranked 136th in the list. The global average was $8.53 for 1GB.

8 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. Canada? by Frederic54 · · Score: 2

    Don't check the price here... latest news :

    Providers such as Virgin, Lucky, Fido, Chatr, Public Mobile and Koodo have committed to offering plans that will range from $15 for 250 MB to $30 for 1GB on a prepaid and postpaid basis. The plans are to be widely available by April 2019.

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    "Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
  2. Products and services in low-income, by Mr.+Dollar+Ton · · Score: 2

    low cost markets tend to be cheaper than those in the generally more expensive places.

    Film at 11.

  3. What appalling methodology by 91degrees · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is an average of the cost per megabyte of all offerings.This doesn't indicate how much people actually pay for a gigabyte.

    A country might have multiple providers offering ultra-cheap packages. These are going to offer rubbish value for money, but hardly anyone actually uses the, except a handful of people who use their phones for emergencies only.

    Pretty much nobody in the UK is paying a fiver per gigabyte. It takes no time at all to find packages offering 4GB for £11 a month from Three.co.uk. But the people who use most data are the ones on the higher data plans,

    Unless you can find the amount of data used, and the total amount paid, your statistics are worthless.

  4. Re:Amazing that people won't shop around. by MightyYar · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm still on the T-Mobile "Walmart" plan, $30 for 5GB. That's $6/month/GB on a major carrier without trying very hard.

    T-Mobile has a family plan that is "unlimited" (deprioritized at 50GB) for $40/month per line. Even if we call that 50GB a cap, that's only $0.80 per GB. And that includes Netflix, phone, and texts. Not seeing the point here.

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    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  5. Re:Ridiculous prices all around by prefect42 · · Score: 2

    I pay a penny per megabyte, and in a busy month I hit ~150Mbytes, even if I include a bit of tethering. I have wifi at home, on the bus, at several places on my walk to work, and almost everywhere in the city. I don't make a measurable number of calls/texts, and pay no fees on top of that.

    I can live with less than £20 a year for a mobile service.

    You really need to unpick this research though, as £44 for 1GB would be quite a challenge to hit. If you can go contract free and pay £10 for 1GB (charged per MB), then I can't imagine many people will be signed up to plans that are £44.

    To be honest, I don't think mobile plans are actually that badly priced in the UK anyway, it's just lots of people sign up to crap deals, and blow silly amounts of money on buying phones on credit. You can haggle deals massively, but even if you don't look at something like plusnet mobile, where you get 1.5Gbytes, unlimited texts, unlimited calls for £7pm. Pick a random other supplier, Three, and you hit 100Gbytes a month for £21, and unlimited for £27, which lines up with the cheapest figures in their data.

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    jh

  6. $22 for 20GB incl 10GB roaming by ruddk · · Score: 3, Informative

    (Denmark) I believe I pay around 150DKK ($22 USD?) for 20 gigabytes of data, unlimited talk,sms,mms.
    That goes for international as well, but only 10GB of data and have to touch homebase after a month or something like that, I suppose it to avoid it being sold and use 100% people outside the country. It means that when I travel to the US, I can use the phone like when I am home. It has been very useful. :)

  7. Italy: 0,20 €/GB by ogrizzo · · Score: 2

    I pay 5,99€/month, taxes included, for 30 GB and unlimited calls to Italy (land and mobile), Europe and almost every developed country — even the US, whether or not they satisfy that definition — (land). What's wrong with you guys?

  8. Re:Fake news by Sivaraj · · Score: 2

    In India, device & data are not linked. You buy device separately and data separately most of the time. Most of the users are on pre-paid plans. Whenever their plan expires, they recharge.

    Starting cost for smart phones is around $50. You can get very decent devices for about $100. When you consider most people use it for Facebook, Whatsapp, YouTube, and basic games, the performance is more than sufficient.

    Data plans are available for as low as 7 cents per day with a 1.5GB daily allowance. Yes, it is 1.5GB per day. You just recharge it once in three months for about $6. That is the rate on lowest cost network. It may raise to $7 or $8 per 3 months on other networks. You can also get 3 GB per day allowance for $5 per month.

    No other country is going to come anywhere near these costs anytime soon.