[JesterMania]

Yeah, we really have to make more noise. I really envy the rest of the world where people can surf on the go without worrying about how many KB they're going over. My co-worker has the 5mb for $5 plan and went approximately 600kb over and was charged $20 for that. I have the $10 for 10mb plan (paying $5 for it) and I really have to control my usage and look at my data counter constantly. This totally ruins the entire experience. Seriously, I sometimes wonder if the people making these data plans actually use them. I can't e-mail constantly, barely instant message, definitely cannot stream online radio, and web browsing is a luxury... :cry:

I was going to drop some cash on either a Kaiser or N95 so I could take pictures and post online on-the-fly but nope. So what good is HSDPA when you can't use it...

[JesterMania]

Yeah, we really have to make more noise. I really envy the rest of the world where people can surf on the go without worrying about how many KB they're going over. My co-worker has the 5mb for $5 plan and went approximately 600kb over and was charged $20 for that. I have the $10 for 10mb plan (paying $5 for it) and I really have to control my usage and look at my data counter constantly. This totally ruins the entire experience. Seriously, I sometimes wonder if the people making these data plans actually use them. I can't e-mail constantly, barely instant message, definitely cannot stream online radio, and web browsing is a luxury... :cry:

I was going to drop some cash on either a Kaiser or N95 so I could take pictures and post online on-the-fly but nope. So what good is HSDPA when you can't use it...

[mr_yellow]

Originally Posted by tnels!

Sounds like a classic Socialism vs. Capitalism example.

I can't wait until the US Govt socializes our healthcare system . . . but I digress.

I think Sprint is $15/mo for all you can eat down here in California. Don't tell me my life ain't work'n out!

God Bless the USA!!!

(Remember you can equal or free, but you can't be both!)

This is the most retarded comparison you could possibly make.. are you that upset about the canadian dollar being worth more than the american dollar that you have to turn this into a idealogical showdown?

The cellular industry in canada is just as free and capitalistic as the equivalents in the US. You could argue that what we have here is in fact the negative side of the capitalistic model where companies are colluding in a free market to artificially keep prices high to ensure high profits. Because guess what? profit is goal #1. who cares about serving the public need and innovating with technology? government intervention? Oh no.. this is capitalism at work!

Sheesh

:roll: :roll:

[Eriq Cook]

Wow. That's--amazing. They're getting raped over there.

[Anthony Caruana]

Sheesh - what a rip-off!

For the first time in many years there's something close to currency parity between Canada, USA and Australia. That should give some context to the costs I'm about to quote.

In Australia, I'm paying $50 per month for 2GB of data AND and ExpressCard HSDPA modem I use with my MacBook Pro (on a two year deal).

The same carrier, Three, offer handset deals with the same data costs.

In contrast, the original, formerly Government owned, carrier Telstra still charges like a wounded bull and offers plans that offer MB of data in GB world.

[Duncan]

Originally Posted by tnels!

Sounds like a classic Socialism vs. Capitalism example.

Does it now. Does it really?

I can't wait until the US Govt socializes our healthcare system . . . but I digress.

I think Sprint is $15/mo for all you can eat down here in California. Don't tell me my life ain't work'n out!

God Bless the USA!!!

(Remember you can equal or free, but you can't be both!)

I have all I can eat data for £7.50 per month (c. US$15) thanks to the healthy competition in our telecoms market. I also get heathcare free at the point of use (no matter what needs doing) whenever I need it - and subsidised medicines - and all for a per capita burden that's lower than in the USA (and it must be working out OK considering that on average we live longer than you lot).

God bless the UK and our healthy sensible mix of socialism and capitalism...!

(Remember you can be equal *and* free - as I believe Abraham Lincoln once pointed out )

[Duncan]

Originally Posted by mr_yellow

The cellular industry in canada is just as free and capitalistic as the equivalents in the US. You could argue that what we have here is in fact the negative side of the capitalistic model where companies are colluding in a free market to artificially keep prices high to ensure high profits. Because guess what? profit is goal #1. who cares about serving the public need and innovating with technology? government intervention? Oh no.. this is capitalism at work!

Indeed.

It took a while before UK mobile companies started offering decent data rates - largely because when all the companies are as bad as each other - where's the motivation for any of them to improve? People forget that markets are generally pretty conservtive. Once one made an improvement, however, others eventually followed. The last hold out finally buckled under pressure from Apple so they could sell the iPhone. Which all sounds like capitalism in action to me.

[Stik]

" Data Plans From Rogers: Stop The Insanity! "

I equate insanity with crazy. In this instance, imo, Rogers is crazy as a fox and their business plan will not change for the forseeable future because data revenue is a solid growing profit driver as witnessed by Roger's Q3 numbers released today...

" Rogers Wireless had 195,100 net additions to its postpaid subscriber count, up from 171,200 in the same quarter of last year.

Monthly revenue per postpaid user increased seven per cent to $75.15. This was driven by 53 per cent growth in data revenue, which at $183 million represented 13.6 per cent of total network revenue. "

http://canadianpress.google.com/arti...fEEotcGiHyYP8A

The disparity of it all! ...

http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=452679328&size=o

Maybe Canadian telco's took Research in Motion President and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis keynote address at Globalcomm in '06 to heart...

" Mike Lazaridis kicked off Globalcomm today with a plea for wireless carriers to reel in their data plans, warning them they risk becoming mere “bit pipes” if they continue offering raw bandwidth rather than specific services.

Unlike the wired broadband world, the wireless network still has enormous capacity constraints that necessitate carriers severely restricting the amount of data allotted to each user. The amount of gross capacity a carrier can offer over a network has a definable ceiling, he said, but the amount of data applications can access is unlimited. If the industry doesn’t discourage unbounded use of data capacity, it will effectively be giving up its revenues.

“We have to make sure we’re offering the right incentives,” Lazaridis said. “Otherwise we’ll fall into the trap of carriers becoming bit pipes. … This is something we have to be very cognizant of as we release wireless data onto our networks.”

http://telephonyonline.com/wireless/...506/index.html

[ADBrown]

Originally Posted by tnels!

Sounds like a classic Socialism vs. Capitalism example.

Sounds like a classic idiotic cliche example to me. But then, we can't have any of that icky Canadian free healthcare getting on us. It might make us, er... healthy.

Now scuttle back to Freeperville.

[heliod]

Originally Posted by Anthony Caruana

Sheesh - what a rip-off!

In Australia, I'm paying $50 per month for 2GB of data AND and ExpressCard HSDPA modem I use with my MacBook Pro (on a two year deal).

The same carrier, Three, offer handset deals with the same data costs.

These prices are a complete Rip-off, really. BTW, comparing to the rest of the wrold, USA prices are as well. In Israel we are paying $9 (in average of the three existing companies) for a 150MB UMTS/HSDPA data plan.

I guess it is not by coincidence that the only countries I cannot afford to keep my Push Mail while roaming are those in North America. Last time in Seattle, after 1 week I came back home and found a roaming bill of $900.

I don't know why North America has to be so different than the rest of the world on these rates. The costs of getting this infrastructure up is surely lower there than in Europe.....

Helio

[petevick]

Duncan,
who are you using, and on what plan to get 'all you can eat' for £7.50 per month?