Why is mobile internet so expensive?

HelterSkelter

I'm with meteor and it's 2c per Kb which adds up really fast if you use it for any length of time at all. My gf is with t-mobile in the UK. They charge 79p per kb (Expensive I know!!!) but there is a max charge of £1 a day no matter how much you use it. Now while this is not ideal it's better that the prehistoric pricing plans we have here which haven't changed in years. There is no incentive to get people to use the internet on their phones. Reminds me of the days when Eircom used to charge £89.99 for 512k broadband and claimed that Irish people don't want broadband. Yeah brains, the reason we didn't want it was cos it was so damn expensive!!

Random

It must be the level of support the network would have to provide should it take off in a really big way?

Maybe the networks don't ave enough infrastructure in place either to cope with everyone wanting to use it at once, a real possibility with dirt cheap pricing.

rogue-entity

Its nothing to do with networks not having the infrastructure, its profiteering, plain and simple. O2 still charge people just to access their O2 Active portal, unlike 3 and Vodafone which dont charge for this. 3 also provide far more content for free unlike Vodafone, but still both of them are better then O2 when it comes to Mobile Internet Pricing (although 3 doesnt have mobile internet yet.. their datacard plans are not too bad.

Urban Weigl

I have a sim card from WIND in Italy, which gives me 5GB of data transfer for €15 (promotional, normal price is €30). And that's on pre-pay without a contract!

If you need mobile internet in Ireland, unfortunately there is no prepay offer. You really just need to go out and get a 1-year contract, no way around it. O2, Vodafone and 3 all offer data cards at this point, which cost about €40 a month for several gigabytes of usage.

drrnwbb

those prices are nuts! here in finland i use a virtual operator (saunalahti) and for 9,95 euros a month i get unlimited data transfer at 128kbs, 1000 domestic sms and 1000 (presumably domestic) mms. for another 8euros a month i get unlimited international smsesss.

culabula

Urban Weigl wrote:

I have a sim card from WIND in Italy, which gives me 5GB of data transfer for €15 (promotional, normal price is €30). And that's on pre-pay without a contract!

Do you have a link for this please?

flodis79

drrnwbb wrote:

those prices are nuts! here in finland i use a virtual operator (saunalahti) and for 9,95 euros a month i get unlimited data transfer at 128kbs, 1000 domestic sms and 1000 (presumably domestic) mms. for another 8euros a month i get unlimited international smsesss.

Tele2 Sweden has unlimited "mobile broadband" for around 20 euros per month.. Can be used both in mobile phone and with the laptop.

Similar packages available with their domestic competitors too.

Ireland is just not using enough data - people are just not complaining. Guess they use the unlmited wap transfer on Blackberry and are quite happy with that.

dohouch

HelterSkelter wrote:

I'm with meteor and it's 2c per Kb

Click:Meteor ISP GPRS
GPRS Charges (Internet Access)
If your phone has access to GPRS you can use it to access the internet.
Service Price
Connecting via GPRS €4.07
per MB downloaded*
Prices quoted exclude VAT at 21%
*1MB = 1,024 kB
Charging is applied per kB at a rate of €0.0040/kB
If you have a phone that will run Operamini, this is a fair bit cheaper.

digitally-yours

They just rip people off

its free in uk there is not enough competition and all providers have created a Cartel

flodis79

culabula wrote:

Urban Weigl wrote:

I have a sim card from WIND in Italy, which gives me 5GB of data transfer for €15 (promotional, normal price is €30). And that's on pre-pay without a contract!

Do you have a link for this please?

This offer does only work in Italy. Abroad you get 60 times less data transfer for your money.

Urban Weigl

culabula wrote:

Urban Weigl wrote:

I have a sim card from WIND in Italy, which gives me 5GB of data transfer for €15 (promotional, normal price is €30). And that's on pre-pay without a contract!

Do you have a link for this please?

It only works in Italy. The web site is wind.it, but it's all in Italian. IMHO it's useful if you travel to Italy, but it's not much good here.

nazoil

in singapore they nearly pay you to use mobile internet. just look what vf.ie charge there for data roaming..a fraction of what they charge customers at home...even an orange france SIM working here is cheaper than some of the local telcos...used one recently and got loads of value out of it

Q. why is mobile internet so expensive?

A. because the networks can and if they thought they could charge twice/three times as much they would....simle supply / demand rationale

culabula

Urban Weigl wrote:

culabula wrote:

It only works in Italy. The web site is wind.it, but it's all in Italian. IMHO it's useful if you travel to Italy, but it's not much good here.

Am off to Italy in 3 weeks. Found the link in any case. Inaddition, am hoping my three.ie data sim will work there, FOC, as promised.

professore

nazoil wrote:

in singapore they nearly pay you to use mobile internet. just look what vf.ie charge there for data roaming..a fraction of what they charge customers at home...even an orange france SIM working here is cheaper than some of the local telcos...used one recently and got loads of value out of it

Q. why is mobile internet so expensive?

A. because the networks can and if they thought they could charge twice/three times as much they would....simle supply / demand rationale

I think they would make more money if they made it cheaper.

Urban Weigl

culabula wrote:

Urban Weigl wrote:

Am off to Italy in 3 weeks. Found the link in any case. Inaddition, am hoping my three.ie data sim will work there, FOC, as promised.

Please report back how 3 coverage is over in Italy. Would be very interesting for many people.

culabula

Urban Weigl wrote:

culabula wrote:

Please report back how 3 coverage is over in Italy. Would be very interesting for many people.

I will do of course, but what will be really interesting is to test that '3 like home' works correctly for data as claimed.

culabula

Incidentally, I just got my latest bill from Vodafone. Despite cancelling the USB modem account on the 03/01/07 and despite not using that account while roaming since the 21/12/06 or using it *at all* since the 02/01/07 I not only notice that the account appears to be still live but has also now incurred further charges of 800€ on top of the initial 600€ bill!

One wonders how this is possible.

Despite their telling me that the initial bill would be waived (since they falsely told me 4 times that it worked witout charge in the north) I now have a bill of 1,423€ (for the period 08/12/06-02/01/07) even though I cannot and have not used it.

Not for nothing are they called Voodoo.

Blaster99

3's coverage is good in Italy, in my experience.

As for why is mobile internet so expensive, well, why are mobile calls so expensive? Why is roaming so expensive? How come 165 bytes of text costs 10c to send? It seems to me that the mobile operator's pricing models are fairly consistent across the board.

Random

culabula wrote:

Incidentally, I just got my latest bill from Vodafone. Despite cancelling the USB modem account on the 03/01/07 and despite not using that account while roaming since the 21/12/06 or using it *at all* since the 02/01/07 I not only notice that the account appears to be still live but has also now incurred further charges of 800€ on top of the initial 600€ bill!

One wonders how this is possible.

Despite their telling me that the initial bill would be waived (since they falsely told me 4 times that it worked witout charge in the north) I now have a bill of 1,423€ (for the period 08/12/06-02/01/07) even though I cannot and have not used it.

Not for nothing are they called Voodoo.

Sometimes roaming charges take some time to show up, this could be it?

ardmacha

Do these "data only"GSM gprs SIM cards actually have a number? Are outgoing calls are generally disabled, but 112 calls allowed? If incoming calls are somehow possible could you set up calls on a ringback service?

BobbyD10

I'm with Vodafone and would log on just to the fantasy premierleague on the phone, I wouldn't know the pricing but for a couple of mins it wouldn't be far off a couple of euros.
Checking this a few times a day adds up I can tell you.
I agree it is very expensive here.