No cheap cell providers in the US? - Printable Version
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No cheap cell providers in the US? by ZrednaZ on 01-06-2010 at 06:01 PM
I've been looking into cell phone service in the US lately. So far the prices I've come across look pretty nasty compared to what I'm used to paying in Denmark.
I currently pay $0.12 USD per minute for calls (no rounding to the next minute, only charged per second), $0.015 per text message and $0.20 per MB data, or an optional 1 GB data package for $10 a month. That's really all there is to my plan. No connection fee, obviously no charge for incoming calls/texts, no monthly fee, no contract, no expiring minutes or any other dodgy terms. Given my low usage, I'll typically spend a total of $4 per month on my phone (well, $14 including my data plan).
Boost Mobile is the cheapest US provider I've come across so far. Is that the cheapest I'm going to find with coverage in Austin?
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by Chris4 on 01-06-2010 at 06:14 PM
quote:Do you mean $0.15 (DKK)?
Originally posted by ZrednaZ
$0.015 per text message
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by ZrednaZ on 01-06-2010 at 06:46 PM
No. All prices mentioned are converted to USD. I pay 0.08 DKK per text. That's 0.015 USD.
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by Chris4 on 01-06-2010 at 07:57 PM
Ok, so unless I'm mistaken, that's £0.009 (GBP) in my currency.
...which seems impossible?
That's not even 1p (£0.01), the smallest coin. 
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by toddy on 01-06-2010 at 08:01 PM
quote:not really, it'll just be round up
Originally posted by Chris4
...which seems impossible?
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by Chrissy on 01-06-2010 at 08:08 PM
quote:That is odd. On average over here you're about 10p per text
Originally posted by Chris4
Ok, so unless I'm mistaken, that's £0.009 (GBP) in my currency.
...which seems impossible?
That's not even 1p (£0.01), the smallest coin.
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by Chris4 on 01-06-2010 at 08:12 PM
quote:Yeah I know, but say it was rounded to £0.01, that's still 10x cheaper than the average text message in the UK.
Originally posted by toddy
quote:not really, it'll just be round up
Originally posted by Chris4
...which seems impossible?
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by toddy on 01-06-2010 at 08:24 PM
quote:and? uk is a rip off!
Originally posted by Chris4
quote:Yeah I know, but say it was rounded to £0.01, that's still 10x cheaper than the average text message in the UK.
Originally posted by toddy
quote:not really, it'll just be round up
Originally posted by Chris4
...which seems impossible?
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by Chris4 on 01-06-2010 at 08:30 PM
quote:True. But for someone who's used to that, it seems impossible to have it 10x cheaper.
Originally posted by toddy
quote:and? uk is a rip off!
Originally posted by Chris4
quote:Yeah I know, but say it was rounded to £0.01, that's still 10x cheaper than the average text message in the UK.
Originally posted by toddy
quote:not really, it'll just be round up
Originally posted by Chris4
...which seems impossible?
Don't tell me every country apart from UK gets this?
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by Menthix on 01-06-2010 at 08:37 PM
quote:You're not paying with coins when you have a contract though, and if you do pay cash (prepaid) I'm sure you're not paying per single SMS. You'd be surprised what a single grain of rice costs
Originally posted by Chris4
That's not even 1p (£0.01), the smallest coin.
.Most of the world is highly overcharging for mobile phone service, text messages in particular.
What I have seen from the US is mostly aimed at heavy users: Lot's of offers for "unlimited" minutes/texts/data (at a price), but if you're a light or even moderate users you seem to be left out. But US members will know better than me.
The cheapest plan for an iPhone on AT&T (just going with the most popular over there) is 70USD per month and you still pay 199 for the phone
. Personally I haven't been paying more than 20USD per month in ages and even my very first contract in the beginning wasn't *that* expensive. Yay Netherlands... but Denmark seems even nicer 
.
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by Adeptus on 01-06-2010 at 10:03 PM
Menthix is right. Majority of the cellular service is contract and fixed monthly cost based (as long as you don't exceed the plan allowances). That is how we do it here, like it or not.
Prepaid or "pay as you go" service just hasn't caught on and the few options of that sort that exist aren't that great. Also, while two of the main US carriers (AT&T and T-Mobile) operate GSM networks, I am not aware of either offering such services or partnering with any service reseller offering them. If you go with Boost, for example, you will be on Sprint's iDEN network (not even CDMA), which they inherited from Nextel. Your phone selection will be from 4-5 clunky Motorola handsets, which are completely useless outside the US.
Another thing you should know is that you will be paying, whether in terms of plan minutes or money, for incoming calls as well as outgoing calls. This is in part a consequence of the fact that in the US, it has always cost the same to call a cell phone from a land line as it did to call another land line.
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by djdannyp on 01-07-2010 at 02:26 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Chris4
quote:True. But for someone who's used to that, it seems impossible to have it 10x cheaper.
Originally posted by toddy
quote:and? uk is a rip off!
Originally posted by Chris4
quote:Yeah I know, but say it was rounded to £0.01, that's still 10x cheaper than the average text message in the UK.
Originally posted by toddy
quote:not really, it'll just be round up
Originally posted by Chris4
...which seems impossible?
Don't tell me every country apart from UK gets this?
Contract FTW. Effective cost £10 a month gets me unlimited texts and 600 minutes
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by Chrissy on 01-07-2010 at 03:01 AM
quote:Wtf, what network provider is that?
Originally posted by djdannyp
quote:
Originally posted by Chris4
quote:True. But for someone who's used to that, it seems impossible to have it 10x cheaper.
Originally posted by toddy
quote:and? uk is a rip off!
Originally posted by Chris4
quote:Yeah I know, but say it was rounded to £0.01, that's still 10x cheaper than the average text message in the UK.
Originally posted by toddy
quote:not really, it'll just be round up
Originally posted by Chris4
...which seems impossible?
Don't tell me every country apart from UK gets this?
Contract FTW. Effective cost £10 a month gets me unlimited texts and 600 minutes
RE: RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by ZrednaZ on 01-07-2010 at 09:05 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Adeptus
Menthix is right. Majority of the cellular service is contract and fixed monthly cost based (as long as you don't exceed the plan allowances). That is how we do it here, like it or not.
Prepaid or "pay as you go" service just hasn't caught on and the few options of that sort that exist aren't that great. Also, while two of the main US carriers (AT&T and T-Mobile) operate GSM networks, I am not aware of either offering such services or partnering with any service reseller offering them. If you go with Boost, for example, you will be on Sprint's iDEN network (not even CDMA), which they inherited from Nextel. Your phone selection will be from 4-5 clunky Motorola handsets, which are completely useless outside the US.
Another thing you should know is that you will be paying, whether in terms of plan minutes or money, for incoming calls as well as outgoing calls. This is in part a consequence of the fact that in the US, it has always cost the same to call a cell phone from a land line as it did to call another land line.
Thanks for that.
Btw I found this interesting article on the subject US providers vs rest of the world: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32560401/ns/technolog...-tech_and_gadgets/
Nevermind Boost's own handset selection. I do assume I can order a SIM card and use it in my own unlocked phone of choice.
About Denmark - there are several service resellers here competing hard for a market of only 5.5 million people; this helps to drive prices down. Unlimited texting usually costs 50 DKK / ~$10 USD a month.
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by Adeptus on 01-07-2010 at 01:36 PM
quote:No, the whole point was that you can't. The Boost iDEN SIM card will fit in your GSM phone and it may even work outside the US where Sprint/Nextel has international roaming agreements. However, they have no such agreements here, where you are expected to be on their own iDEN network (which your GSM phone can't talk to).
Originally posted by ZrednaZ
Nevermind Boost's own handset selection. I do assume I can order a SIM card and use it in my own unlocked phone of choice.
The rest of the world uses one cellular network type (GSM), so this is probably quite confusing for you. US has four different network types in use. CDMA, also used by Sprint, and TDMA, used by Verizon, work with phones that don't even have SIM cards or a slot to put one in.
As noted before, the main US GSM network operators are AT&T and T-Mobile. Their (or their resellers') SIM cards should work in your own phone, provided it supports the right GSM band. Older or very basic phones might not.
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by djdannyp on 01-07-2010 at 05:43 PM
quote:
Originally posted by krissy-afc
quote:Wtf, what network provider is that?
Originally posted by djdannyp
quote:
Originally posted by Chris4
quote:True. But for someone who's used to that, it seems impossible to have it 10x cheaper.
Originally posted by toddy
quote:and? uk is a rip off!
Originally posted by Chris4
quote:Yeah I know, but say it was rounded to £0.01, that's still 10x cheaper than the average text message in the UK.
Originally posted by toddy
quote:not really, it'll just be round up
Originally posted by Chris4
...which seems impossible?
Don't tell me every country apart from UK gets this?
Contract FTW. Effective cost £10 a month gets me unlimited texts and 600 minutes
O2 via Carphone Warehouse/e2Save/OneStopPhoneShop
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by lizard.boy on 01-07-2010 at 11:04 PM
I'm pretty sure T-Mobile's 3g service is AWS, so don't expect any GSM phone to work with 3g speed. It will however work for gsm talk and text.
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by Rolando on 01-08-2010 at 01:24 AM
T-Mobile works for me =P
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by Chrissy on 01-08-2010 at 05:44 AM
@Djdannyp: Really? Link? I only get unlimited texts for £10..
RE: RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by ZrednaZ on 01-08-2010 at 08:30 AM
quote:Ok lol, I missed that point. I was unaware of this fact. The great thing about standards is there's so many to choose between, as they say.
Originally posted by Adeptus
quote:No, the whole point was that you can't. The Boost iDEN SIM card will fit in your GSM phone and it may even work outside the US where Sprint/Nextel has international roaming agreements. However, they have no such agreements here, where you are expected to be on their own iDEN network (which your GSM phone can't talk to).
Originally posted by ZrednaZ
Nevermind Boost's own handset selection. I do assume I can order a SIM card and use it in my own unlocked phone of choice.
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by Felu on 01-08-2010 at 10:51 AM
I pay $0.0002(USD) per text 
.
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by djdannyp on 01-08-2010 at 11:21 AM
quote:
Originally posted by krissy-afc
@Djdannyp: Really? Link? I only get unlimited texts for £10..
http://www.e2save.com/contract-phone/Samsung+S523...gi26qm0pcrjbqt3pa3
there's a similar offer (albeit on Orange, not O2)....just what I could find from looking in 2 seconds
Mine was a second contract though and I got it over the phone by turning down a new handset and asking for a better deal on the contract. But get a deal like that to start with, then turn down the handset when it comes to getting a new contract and see what deal they'll give you without it
RE: RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by ZrednaZ on 01-08-2010 at 02:23 PM
quote:Not bad! How does the rest of your plan look?
Originally posted by Felu
I pay $0.0002(USD) per text
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by Felu on 01-08-2010 at 03:04 PM
quote:Post paid. Calls at $0.01 per minute. Free intra-carrier calls. <$1 Monthly Rental.
Originally posted by ZrednaZ
quote:Not bad! How does the rest of your plan look?
Originally posted by Felu
I pay $0.0002(USD) per text
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by ZrednaZ on 01-08-2010 at 03:41 PM
India, here I come!
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by toddy on 01-08-2010 at 08:26 PM
quote:carphonewarehouse now sucks tbh, when they first started doing the (hidden) online deals, you could get contracts that cost nothing and the expensive one's were like £2.99. The best one i got was 1000mins & 1000texts on 3, with a free nokia (fairly good model as well). £30 a month, £30 a month auto cash back, now its all shitty phones and £10/20+ a month, and stupid long contracts
Originally posted by djdannyp
quote:
Originally posted by krissy-afc
@Djdannyp: Really? Link? I only get unlimited texts for £10..
http://www.e2save.com/contract-phone/Samsung+S523...gi26qm0pcrjbqt3pa3
there's a similar offer (albeit on Orange, not O2)....just what I could find from looking in 2 seconds
Mine was a second contract though and I got it over the phone by turning down a new handset and asking for a better deal on the contract. But get a deal like that to start with, then turn down the handset when it comes to getting a new contract and see what deal they'll give you without it
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by user27089 on 01-09-2010 at 12:38 AM
quote:
Originally posted by toddy
carphonewarehouse now sucks tbh, when they first started doing the (hidden) online deals, you could get contracts that cost nothing and the expensive one's were like £2.99. The best one i got was 1000mins & 1000texts on 3, with a free nokia (fairly good model as well). £30 a month, £30 a month auto cash back, now its all shitty phones and £10/20+ a month, and stupid long contracts
Couldn't agree more.
British mobile phone contracts are slowly getting more expensive and even worse. I'm with 3 at the moment. A company that don't seem to care about their existing customers - only the new ones.
I called up my the local guys at 3 (India) to get the internet on my phone (an extra £4.99 per month) and I was forced to have it for two months. Which was fair enough as I thought I'd need it more than I actually did - turned out I cancelled it after the two months. Anyway, I digress. Little did I know that with the contract I am on, I should be getting unlimited internet for free anyway. Turns out it's only for new customers who are paying the same as I am and for less time.
At the moment just for my package I've paid a total of £609 since August '07. Including an estimated £1 for picture messages, internet usage etc but not for any add-ons that I purchased.
Why am I so annoyed? The reason is simple. It's a well known fact that it's cheaper to keep an existing customer than it is to seek a new customer so they should be letting me know when I'm eligible for free texts, free calls and so on and so forth. Instead the only thing they care about is making me pay the same price for fewer privileges than newer customers and then get all concerned when I don't want to renew my contract. Which, by the way, I'm not going to do.
RE: RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by kezz on 01-09-2010 at 03:30 AM
quote:
Originally posted by toddy
quote:and? uk is a rip off!
Originally posted by Chris4
quote:Yeah I know, but say it was rounded to £0.01, that's still 10x cheaper than the average text message in the UK.
Originally posted by toddy
quote:not really, it'll just be round up
Originally posted by Chris4
...which seems impossible?
In australia, the base rate is like AU$0.25 per text. It is rather outrageous, which is why unlimited text plans are extremely popular.
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by Chrissy on 01-09-2010 at 05:21 PM
Same here alot of people have a text plan. In fact providers usually encourage plans like it.
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by user27089 on 01-09-2010 at 09:09 PM
quote:It costs them nothing to send a text, as it's using the same line as other people or something.
Originally posted by krissy-afc
Same here alot of people have a text plan. In fact providers usually encourage plans like it.
I'm sure someone could insert the interesting facts here.
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by djdannyp on 01-09-2010 at 11:12 PM
quote:
Originally posted by traxor
I'm sure someone could insert the interesting facts here.
Sending a text message is four times more expensive (in terms of pence per byte of data) than NASA receiving data from the Hubble Telescope
RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by user27089 on 01-10-2010 at 12:55 AM
quote:Wherever you got that information from is completely wrong. Look at this article at Gizmodo about bandwidth usage and rounding down prices and you'll see that they're basically free. Here's another article.
Originally posted by djdannyp
Sending a text message is four times more expensive (in terms of pence per byte of data) than NASA receiving data from the Hubble Telescope
RE: RE: No cheap cell providers in the US? by djdannyp on 01-10-2010 at 02:12 AM
quote:
Originally posted by traxor
quote:Wherever you got that information from is completely wrong. Look at this article at Gizmodo about bandwidth usage and rounding down prices and you'll see that they're basically free. Here's another article.
Originally posted by djdannyp
Sending a text message is four times more expensive (in terms of pence per byte of data) than NASA receiving data from the Hubble Telescope
I meant for the user...not the network