How much do you pay for your cell phone network access and is it worth it?
 

Just wondering....

France has an internet provider (called "Free") that just upped the ante by entering into the mobile (cell) market. Prior, people were paying ~€30-40 for ~2hrs talk + 1GB data for their mobile data plans.

Free entered the cell market with a bang -
€2/mo for 60 minutes talk and 60 sms (€0 if you use Free for your home internet) - great for kids in the family
€15/mo for unlimited world calls, sms, and 3GB of data (tethering included).
No contract, free to leave whenever you want.

Immediately, all the other major operators responded (within days) by slashing their prices, removing contract minimums, but still none come close to those of Free (best offer is €20/mo with unlimited French calls and 1GB data from Sosh, the French Orange low-cost operator).

Goes to show what profit mobile operators have if they can slash prices like that nearly overnight....

Needless, to say, I switched to Free, which funnily enough runs on the Orange network (Orange is a major Euro provider) for less than half that I was paying previously and I now get unlimited world calls on my cell phone.

:thumbsup

As GFY is multinational, how do your plans fare up? Are you happy with the cost?

Hm, well Hungary here and the so called competition for subscribers ended years ago. The market is divided, the three big players (Vodafone, T-Mobile and Telenor) has market shares almost the same for years now. So, the prices are not really declining but going up year after year.

Anyway my package costs now about 15€ worth of HUF and contains 200 minutes in Hungary, unlimited internet on phone or from PC and unlimited text in the Vodafone network (ok, "unlimited" capped at 1000 :) ). I'm fine with this deal.

What I'm always laughing a lot is the prices for iPhone related packages. Starting at like 60€ for a month, and you need to sign 2 years or so, and pay a LOT for the phone... Well, hype is hype and I don't blame providers milking the users because they are happy to be milked :1orglaugh

Heard that Lidl will start the first real virtual operator in february with real competition - we'll see... All what I know is that Hungarian Post started a virtual service on the Vodafone network some years ago and it was a huge failure. They prices were at sky high levels and the service was greatly limited. Red Bull Mobile is the virtual provider I have no idea in regards of performance, but they are promoting somewhat their services, whiches are also very high at prices and basically you pay for using "Red Bull" branded stuff - another non sense hype and they are using the Telenor network. Telenor is another story... until it was owned by Sonera, the finnish telecom company, they were great, the best. After Telenor took over, everybody started to leave them and their service level and prices are getting worse and worse...

I actually love your deal :thumbsup
I couldn't care less for the "unlimited calls" even if they are worldwide ( I call worldwide for free via my server on a 0800 freephone number), but for me the data plan is critical and you've got a great plan there - is it really unlimited, or is it capped/downgraded after so many GB? It's 3G I assume?

3G unlimited is my quest!

what my cell with verizon is like $100 a month ... Unlimited Net , 5000 texts , 700 minutes ... Verizon is Expensive but has the best coverage

HSDPA we have here, it works almost everywhere at the speed of ~2mbit or so at least. Bandwith reduced to 128 kbit after 5gb and to 576 kbit after 2 gb. Nothing is ever unlimited =D But no overcharge fee.

The usa is always a different page in the book if we talk about telecommunication :)

7,5 euros for 100 minutes, 200 sms and 200mb

$80 per month for $750 worth of calls and 1GB of net i have to pay for international call extra.

$60 per month.
Unlimited everything.
AT&T.

Mine is around $120 a month for 4 lines all with smartphone, unlimited data, 2500 minutes, free cell to cell and evening calls.

I love Sprint.

i pay 12e 150 mins in all networks after that i have 500 mins just in that network(Telenor) unlimited internet access +500sms. And if i dont spend the mins and sms-s transfer to the next month the thing is they bill for a 1min as soon as you start your call, and if your call is 61sec they will bill 2mins ..

£10 a month
250 minutes | unlimited texts | unlimited data
been pushing the data to see how unlimited it is and so far maxed at 40GB in a month without getting any restrictions :-)

About £20 per month on a T-Mobile contract which included a Samsung Galaxy (really nice phone). Allowance is 300 cross network minutes per month, unlimited landline calls, large or unlimited data (always going online when out and never been restricted) and huge SMS allowance (use a fraction of the allowance).

Really good service from T-Mobile (was with Orange on the last contract and I was disappointed with them).

Sounds like Hungarian Telenor in the past to me :)

that is a great plan :thumbsup

Ys the UK is filled with competition, with many companies - bringing the prices down to a realistic level.

When I lived there, I took easyJet's virtual phone plan. It was great, I barely needed to pay anything, and yet my telecommunication needs were fullfilled.

Canada is the largest land mass in the world with the smallest population density, so we pay through the teeth for our network access ... We have a larger national network area than the US, but only 1/10th as many subscribers...

Our providers are all switching to fiber now, but they estimate that they will not make bac the money they invested in first generation digital wireless until about 2016.

Our rates are insanely high compared to US and EU plans ... :(

But we have free health care .... and MAPLE SYRUP!! :D

Where do I sign up? :thumbsup

Free health care => done ;)