Considering the iPhone is slowly moving more and more into the prepaid market, that would explain most of this.
Nearly every other platform has low-end phones available cheap on prepaid carriers. If/when Apple comes out with a new, lower priced, entry level iPhone for prepaid, this could change quite a bit.
Meanwhile I, and many others I know, am enjoying my iPhone on Straight Talk for under $50 per month after taxes. It isn't exactly perfect, but it works.
Apple really needs to relax the APN restrictions for unlocked iPhones running on AT&T MVNO plans.
I'm moving to sprint to join my parents. Even 89$ a month, the cheapest for a Verizon iPhone, is too much. Also I'm rooting for the little guy. I hope sprint does not disappoint.
I had the AT&T family plan before moving to the mobile share plan. Even with just 1 or 2 phones, I never spent over $100/phone. This was when I had to pay extra for text messages and had a 1400 minute plan. After AT&T changed to call anywhere, I dropped to a 700 minute plan and still had roll-over minutes. Now with 5 iPhones on a MobileShare 6GB plan our total bill is just over $300 or $60/phone. 6GB is a lot of data unless you're constantly watching movies. Even if I moved to the top data tier I don't believe it would put us at $500/mo so I'd like to know how people are paying so much per phone.
Your comments validate my costs. 4 iPhones, 6 gig data share, at around $260/month.
Seems the survey, or at least the article summarizing the survey didn't account for multiline plans. As far as I see it is irrelevant what phone you have, the billed usage fees are the same no matter what smart phone you buy.
Requiring a dataplan is a bunch of nonsense anyhow, It would be like buying a new car and being force to buy a particular brand of gas.
99% of the time I'm around a wi-fi system. I don't want network data. And to top that off, after a 2 year contract and ATT has recovered the price of my phone, why doesn't the service plan go down to reflect that.
Cell towers constantly communicate between them and it doesn't cost a thing.
People seem to totally ignore the rest of the resources that each message takes. It's like saying a package to me sent from halfway around the world should only cost as much as the last few feet, or even be free because the postman drives by every day anyway.
The cell tower comms are the smallest part of an SMS transfer, just like the postman is the last small part of the mail. And even those small parts have a cost.
(1000 mins are never used, iMessage often is free)
I also have five phonenumbers within the same
carrier network that are free to call, I only pay opening fee
(10 cents) and the call is free, no matter how long I talk...
This includes a twin-card for my iPad.
For me this translates as "as much as I can chew"...
Seems like Cell Phones in US means high prices and
pretty rotten data-traffic.
And Spotify was included in the deal...for 12 months...
In sweden people are cancelling their land-lines and goes all
cellular. ... it's cheaper...
Don't assume everyone in the U.S. pays high fees. I pay only $50 a month for unlimited everything, truly unlimited with no soft caps or throttling and that includes LTE and 3G, unlimited calls, and also unlimited texts. I use a lot more than 1,000 talk and texts a month so your plan in Sweden would not be very useful for me. I am with Sprint on a special legacy plan. It is no longer available to new customers. Millions of other people are also on legacy plans or get special discounts as high as 30% off every month. America may have some very expensive plans but is also has some incredibly cheap plans as well for people that were lucky enough to get and keep them. Any plan that doesn't include unlimited calls or texts would be useless to me and now that we have LTE your 5GB data cap isn't enough for me since I am averaging 8GB or more a month now. Others here might be jealous of your plan, I am not one of them.
I pay about $70/month for 450 minutes, 250 txt messages, unlimited data (grandfathered from POS Android), 18% off from work. How can anyone spend $200 on an individual phone plan
Subway trains keep moving whether there are 100 or 1000 passengers. So perhaps transit should be free?
Actually, yes. Transit SHOULD be free.
It is not equivalent to "Transit should not have a cost", since transit should be managed by the state, that itself should outsource the activities involved to the cheapest company through clear, efficient public offers that the general public can check for foul play, and paid for through taxes.
The benefits are clear: less pollution due to personal cars since the public system is much more efficient, an economy that picks up due to the ability of workers to be at places they have to go to with no expense, cheaper operation than in a liberal economy...
Obviously, just like with ATT/Verizon in the Telecom "Bizness", some people would not like this as it would make their gold-studded Rolls a little less affordable for their still-gold-lined-anyway pockets.
But no issue, please remain convinced of being right and keep paying ten times what I pay for the same service.
Don't assume everyone in the U.S. pays high fees. I pay only $50 a month for unlimited everything, truly unlimited with no soft caps or throttling and that includes LTE and 3G, unlimited calls, and also unlimited texts. I use a lot more than 1,000 talk and texts a month so your plan in Sweden would not be very useful for me. I am with Sprint on a special legacy plan. It is no longer available to new customers. Millions of other people are also on legacy plans or get special discounts as high as 30% off every month. America may have some very expensive plans but is also has some incredibly cheap plans as well for people that were lucky enough to get and keep them. Any plan that doesn't include unlimited calls or texts would be useless to me and now that we have LTE your 5GB data cap isn't enough for me since I am averaging 8GB or more a month now. Others here might be jealous of your plan, I am not one of them.
Good for you sincerely
As an aside, it raises questions on a system where, apparently, some people who "got lucky" have a great deal, paid for by the people who "did not get lucky".
Doesn't exactly fit with the "to each according to their merit" dogma, but then again, dogma and reality never seem to go along ^^
It is not equivalent to "Transit should not have a cost", since transit should be managed by the state, that itself should outsource the activities involved to the cheapest company through clear, efficient public offers that the general public can check for foul play, and paid for through taxes.
The benefits are clear: less pollution due to personal cars since the public system is much more efficient, an economy that picks up due to the ability of workers to be at places they have to go to with no expense, cheaper operation than in a liberal economy...
Obviously, just like with ATT/Verizon in the Telecom "Bizness", some people would not like this as it would make their gold-studded Rolls a little less affordable for their still-gold-lined-anyway pockets.
But no issue, please remain convinced of being right and keep paying ten times what I pay for the same service.
If transit should be free and managed by the state, shouldn't cell phone use be free to? Well at least for 47% of the people?
We will only be a free and equal country when everyone has an unlimited data plan, right?
People seem to totally ignore the rest of the resources that each message takes. It's like saying a package to me sent from halfway around the world should only cost as much as the last few feet, or even be free because the postman drives by every day anyway.
The cell tower comms are the smallest part of an SMS transfer, just like the postman is the last small part of the mail. And even those small parts have a cost.
That's a very accurate fact. The fact that SMS are a scam is unrelated to tower communications, it's related to the pricing rates compared to pure data.
My 15€/mo "expensive data plan" would like to disagree, Michael.
US plans are not so great. You can get cheap phones due to subsidies, yet they have to pay for them somehow. The phone companies spend a lot of what they take in on subsidies. I wish more of it went to improving the networks. The practice also makes it more difficult for smaller carriers to gain leverage, as most of them can't afford huge phone subsidies. You always pay for that phone somewhere.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KDarling
People seem to totally ignore the rest of the resources that each message takes. It's like saying a package to me sent from halfway around the world should only cost as much as the last few feet, or even be free because the postman drives by every day anyway.
The cell tower comms are the smallest part of an SMS transfer, just like the postman is the last small part of the mail. And even those small parts have a cost.
Are there any good articles on that? I have no idea how it works.
Comments
Nearly every other platform has low-end phones available cheap on prepaid carriers. If/when Apple comes out with a new, lower priced, entry level iPhone for prepaid, this could change quite a bit.
Meanwhile I, and many others I know, am enjoying my iPhone on Straight Talk for under $50 per month after taxes. It isn't exactly perfect, but it works.
Apple really needs to relax the APN restrictions for unlocked iPhones running on AT&T MVNO plans.
Making people pay for sms has always been a scam.
Cell towers constantly communicate between them and it doesn't cost a thing.
Yep. Count me in.
Welcome to Rogers.™
(then again, I still have my grandfathered 6GB data plan. If I leave, I can kiss that goodbye. Damn golden handcuffs.)
I pay $50 a month for 250 daytime minutes, unlimited evenings/weekends, unlimited sms/mms, 6 GB data, $0.10/min long distance, call ID and voicemail.
Before I found this deal, I was at $65/month for the same thing minus discounted long distance.
What are people doing to hit the $200 mark?!?
(I'm in Canada)
Quote:
Originally Posted by ClemyNX
Making people pay for sms has always been a scam.
Cell towers constantly communicate between them and it doesn't cost a thing.
Subway trains keep moving whether there are 100 or 1000 passengers. So perhaps transit should be free?
Quote:
Originally Posted by KDarling
I doubt there are millions of people who pay $200 for an "expensive data plan" all for themselves.
I would suggest that the primary reason why a bill would be so high, is because it's for a family. E.g. add in the kids who got an iPhone.
I would hope they calculated the cost "per line/device", otherwise it adds a bunch of other variables.
iPhone households might have more kids with smart phones or they might also have tables/computer on the account, etc.
Swedish 499 a month (USD79) for
Phone, 32GB Iphone5, 24 Months.
5GB data, 27MBit/s throughput on 3G
1000Min talk time, 1000 text messages.
(1000 mins are never used, iMessage often is free)
I also have five phonenumbers within the same
carrier network that are free to call, I only pay opening fee
(10 cents) and the call is free, no matter how long I talk...
This includes a twin-card for my iPad.
For me this translates as "as much as I can chew"...
Seems like Cell Phones in US means high prices and
pretty rotten data-traffic.
And Spotify was included in the deal...for 12 months...
In sweden people are cancelling their land-lines and goes all
cellular. ... it's cheaper...
Your comments validate my costs. 4 iPhones, 6 gig data share, at around $260/month.
Seems the survey, or at least the article summarizing the survey didn't account for multiline plans. As far as I see it is irrelevant what phone you have, the billed usage fees are the same no matter what smart phone you buy.
Requiring a dataplan is a bunch of nonsense anyhow, It would be like buying a new car and being force to buy a particular brand of gas.
99% of the time I'm around a wi-fi system. I don't want network data. And to top that off, after a 2 year contract and ATT has recovered the price of my phone, why doesn't the service plan go down to reflect that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ClemyNX
Making people pay for sms has always been a scam.
Cell towers constantly communicate between them and it doesn't cost a thing.
People seem to totally ignore the rest of the resources that each message takes. It's like saying a package to me sent from halfway around the world should only cost as much as the last few feet, or even be free because the postman drives by every day anyway.
The cell tower comms are the smallest part of an SMS transfer, just like the postman is the last small part of the mail. And even those small parts have a cost.
i am the 6%
Quote:
Originally Posted by Planck
Swedish 499 a month (USD79) for
Phone, 32GB Iphone5, 24 Months.
5GB data, 27MBit/s throughput on 3G
1000Min talk time, 1000 text messages.
(1000 mins are never used, iMessage often is free)
I also have five phonenumbers within the same
carrier network that are free to call, I only pay opening fee
(10 cents) and the call is free, no matter how long I talk...
This includes a twin-card for my iPad.
For me this translates as "as much as I can chew"...
Seems like Cell Phones in US means high prices and
pretty rotten data-traffic.
And Spotify was included in the deal...for 12 months...
In sweden people are cancelling their land-lines and goes all
cellular. ... it's cheaper...
Don't assume everyone in the U.S. pays high fees. I pay only $50 a month for unlimited everything, truly unlimited with no soft caps or throttling and that includes LTE and 3G, unlimited calls, and also unlimited texts. I use a lot more than 1,000 talk and texts a month so your plan in Sweden would not be very useful for me. I am with Sprint on a special legacy plan. It is no longer available to new customers. Millions of other people are also on legacy plans or get special discounts as high as 30% off every month. America may have some very expensive plans but is also has some incredibly cheap plans as well for people that were lucky enough to get and keep them. Any plan that doesn't include unlimited calls or texts would be useless to me and now that we have LTE your 5GB data cap isn't enough for me since I am averaging 8GB or more a month now. Others here might be jealous of your plan, I am not one of them.
I pay about $70/month for 450 minutes, 250 txt messages, unlimited data (grandfathered from POS Android), 18% off from work. How can anyone spend $200 on an individual phone plan
Quote:
Originally Posted by stelligent
Subway trains keep moving whether there are 100 or 1000 passengers. So perhaps transit should be free?
Actually, yes. Transit SHOULD be free.
It is not equivalent to "Transit should not have a cost", since transit should be managed by the state, that itself should outsource the activities involved to the cheapest company through clear, efficient public offers that the general public can check for foul play, and paid for through taxes.
The benefits are clear: less pollution due to personal cars since the public system is much more efficient, an economy that picks up due to the ability of workers to be at places they have to go to with no expense, cheaper operation than in a liberal economy...
Obviously, just like with ATT/Verizon in the Telecom "Bizness", some people would not like this as it would make their gold-studded Rolls a little less affordable for their still-gold-lined-anyway pockets.
But no issue, please remain convinced of being right and keep paying ten times what I pay for the same service.
The average consumer only cares if they can pay their "muntlies"...
If the monthly cost for their cell phone goes up, they will just lower how much they are paying on their credit card debt..
You must consume. Buy more, use more. Must have the latest gadget to impress everyone.
I wonder how much a month social security will cover of their phone bill?
Quote:
Originally Posted by gwmac
Don't assume everyone in the U.S. pays high fees. I pay only $50 a month for unlimited everything, truly unlimited with no soft caps or throttling and that includes LTE and 3G, unlimited calls, and also unlimited texts. I use a lot more than 1,000 talk and texts a month so your plan in Sweden would not be very useful for me. I am with Sprint on a special legacy plan. It is no longer available to new customers. Millions of other people are also on legacy plans or get special discounts as high as 30% off every month. America may have some very expensive plans but is also has some incredibly cheap plans as well for people that were lucky enough to get and keep them. Any plan that doesn't include unlimited calls or texts would be useless to me and now that we have LTE your 5GB data cap isn't enough for me since I am averaging 8GB or more a month now. Others here might be jealous of your plan, I am not one of them.
Good for you sincerely
As an aside, it raises questions on a system where, apparently, some people who "got lucky" have a great deal, paid for by the people who "did not get lucky".
Doesn't exactly fit with the "to each according to their merit" dogma, but then again, dogma and reality never seem to go along ^^
Quote:
Originally Posted by lightknight
Actually, yes. Transit SHOULD be free.
It is not equivalent to "Transit should not have a cost", since transit should be managed by the state, that itself should outsource the activities involved to the cheapest company through clear, efficient public offers that the general public can check for foul play, and paid for through taxes.
The benefits are clear: less pollution due to personal cars since the public system is much more efficient, an economy that picks up due to the ability of workers to be at places they have to go to with no expense, cheaper operation than in a liberal economy...
Obviously, just like with ATT/Verizon in the Telecom "Bizness", some people would not like this as it would make their gold-studded Rolls a little less affordable for their still-gold-lined-anyway pockets.
But no issue, please remain convinced of being right and keep paying ten times what I pay for the same service.
If transit should be free and managed by the state, shouldn't cell phone use be free to? Well at least for 47% of the people?
We will only be a free and equal country when everyone has an unlimited data plan, right?
Quote:
Originally Posted by KDarling
People seem to totally ignore the rest of the resources that each message takes. It's like saying a package to me sent from halfway around the world should only cost as much as the last few feet, or even be free because the postman drives by every day anyway.
The cell tower comms are the smallest part of an SMS transfer, just like the postman is the last small part of the mail. And even those small parts have a cost.
That's a very accurate fact. The fact that SMS are a scam is unrelated to tower communications, it's related to the pricing rates compared to pure data.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lightknight
My 15€/mo "expensive data plan" would like to disagree, Michael.
US plans are not so great. You can get cheap phones due to subsidies, yet they have to pay for them somehow. The phone companies spend a lot of what they take in on subsidies. I wish more of it went to improving the networks. The practice also makes it more difficult for smaller carriers to gain leverage, as most of them can't afford huge phone subsidies. You always pay for that phone somewhere.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KDarling
People seem to totally ignore the rest of the resources that each message takes. It's like saying a package to me sent from halfway around the world should only cost as much as the last few feet, or even be free because the postman drives by every day anyway.
The cell tower comms are the smallest part of an SMS transfer, just like the postman is the last small part of the mail. And even those small parts have a cost.
Are there any good articles on that? I have no idea how it works.