So, im heading over to the USA for studies and ofcourse i need a phone. I checked the prices at the major carriers for a iphone6 and 3gb of data. And i was pretty shocked, 85$ a month! And at some carriers they even wanted a down payment.
In Sweden i can get about the same deal for
50$ and with no down payment or such thingd. I have checked 2 year contracts, how do you americans afford this as i see most of you walking around with iPhone 6:s? Do Americans think that this is a good price or what?
And whats the reason behind those prices? I thougt everyting in Usa was cheaper than in Sweden and thats pretty true i guess but those phone prices are high.
Many of the contracts include the cost of the telephone spread out over the two years of the contract. If you want to save money, buy your telephone outright, and get a month-by-month plan.
Most Americans don’t have iPhone 6s. Lots of us still have ancient “dumb” flip-phones, and lots of others have smart phones that aren’t iPhones. If you currently have an iPhone (or any smart phone for that matter), do some investigation to find out whether it will work with any of the carriers here in the US. If so, find out whether any of their plans sound reasonable to you. Even if they don’t, your phone will still work here with wi-fi, so you can bring it anyway, and just use it with the wi-fi on and near campus until you figure out what phone service you do want to pay for.
Depending on what services you care about most, there are cheaper plans if you know where to look.
For example, T-Mobile has a $30/month plan with 5 GB of high-speed data and 100 voice minutes (http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/other-prepaid-plans) and a $40/month plan with 1 GB of data and unlimited calling (http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-monthly-plans). You’d need to provide your own phone in both cases.
Besides the “big 4” wireless carriers (Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T), there’s a plethora of smaller regional carriers and prepaid providers that operate on the network of one of the big providers. If you do some research, you should find plenty of ‘affordable’ plans.
Maybe the Swedish government subsidizes the phone company over there!
Fun fact from the 2013 T-Mobile Yearly Report: it only costs about $25 a month to serve an existing customer (including cost of services, administrative expenses, loss from subsidized equipment sales, etc).
Page 33. http://investor.t-mobile.com/GenPage.aspx?IID=4091145&GKP=1073748984
Do you really need 3gb data?
I m totally fine with 250MB data for THREE PEOPLE PER MONTH
Geographically they are covering a much larger area here. But I agree, it is shocking – I was amazed at the low cost of cell phone & mobile hotspot coverage when D1 spent a semester in Finland.
Another fun fact: the US has twice the population density of Finland.
Yes, costs are shocking. I was able to get 150Mn voice, 250mb data, and unlimited texts for 10£ this summer. In France you can get 2hvoice, unlimited texts, 1gb data for about 15€., also this year. I know cable bundles are also cheaper, and it’s due to good old fashioned competition between providers. Market economy at its best. Why doesn’t it work in the US then?
My conclusion: not enough competitive pricing in the us or there may be price fixing between the 4major companies because the difference with other developed countries is huge.
US cell phone service might be suffering from too much competition. The average customer acquisition cost runs around $400. Itemize that over a 2-year contract and you are paying $20 a month just to have the provider advertise to you.
I personally like the price fixing idea. And no one can convince me there isn’t price fixing in airline tickets!
I got my unlocked cellphone for under $100 and we have prepaid ATT service. No iphone here. Campus will have wifi so you should need less data.
My D pays $40 a month for unl talk and text and 1.5 GB of data.
I only text moderately and call Germany for 250 min a month for $10/mo.
My son only texts and has unl text for $20/mo.