Here’s how badly we’re getting ripped off by our mobile phone providers
UK's Three offers unlimited data and texts (even roaming to US) all for £20 ($31).
Cyrus Farivar
My fellow Americans, let me (again) re-iterate how badly we’re all getting overcharged: Three offers a 30-day prepaid plan with unlimited data, unlimited texts, and 200 minutes of domestic calling, all for £20 ($31). That’s about one-third less than what I pay right now Stateside.
Last month, I traveled to the United Kingdom for a reporting trip on the new Welsh drone startup behind the Zano handheld drone. Before I left California, I had my new Ars UK colleague Sebastian Anthony
As I learned on this trip, I was also able to roam to Ireland at no extra cost. Seriously, zero.
I have yet to find any American company, whether one of the Big 4 (T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint), or a prepaid mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), that comes anywhere close to Three's offering at this price.
The MVNO that I use, Straight Talk (running on the AT&T network), costs $45 per month for unlimited minutes and texts, recently increased from 3GB to 5GB of data. For the last three years, it’s been working beautifully on my used, unlocked iPhone. That’s the best I’ve been able to find so far here in the US, but that’s still about 50 percent more than what Three is
As I’ve been reporting for Ars for years now, the American mobile market is slowly starting to move in the direction of prepaid plans, which has dominated the rest of the globe for years. I’m pretty much always willing to try out new prepaid mobile companies that are attempting to break the mold.
Back in 2012, industry data showed American mobile phone operators sustained the first-ever net decline in contract (“postpaid”) subscriptions, a loss of 52,000 subscribers. And the number of non-contract ("prepaid") mobile customers has reached record levels—and about 25 percent of all mobile phone users in America.
In recent years, American
But all of the big players still charge way too much. To match what I already have
Some of the other MVNOs have offers that are identical or even come very close to Straight Talk. For instance, I might consider switching to Cricket, a subsidiary of AT&T.
Three, where are you?
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