[dingo_bat]

I pay 5$ for three months unlimited LTE data on my phone here in India. They throttle me if I consume more than 1GB in a day. But that's enough for me to not worry about auto playing videos. But I really hate the audio. My point is that you don't have to be rich to not have to worry about mobile data now.

[virgilp]

That's (a) a very good price, and (b) I suspect a lot of money, for people in India. You are not "rich" by western standards, but you may be by Indian ones... and anyway, the bottom line is that you are fortunate enough to afford high-quality, unlimited mobile data. I suspect there are plenty of people in the world who don't have unlimited data (e.g. I don't, not that I mind much).

The second point is that "data" is not everything. There's also the aspect of needlessly consuming the battery; and potentially loading the page slower, just to load the video ad first (especially frustrating when/if you're in an area with bad coverage).

[jhasse]

In Germany you'll get 1GB per month for 5$. And probably not LTE.

[bjoli]

Blame the government. They sold the 3g spectrum frequencies to the phone companies at insane prices. The German consumers are still paying for it.

[jhasse]

I actually don't think it's such a bad thing. Just wanted to point that out ;)

[herbst]

I pay $1.20 a day for 20MB LTE and "unlimited" slow connection. 20MB is not even a writing error, usually the first thing that happens when i read news in the morning is a SMS that i went over my high speed limit.

This is in Switzerland, and i had similar bad offers in the Netherlands and Germany.

My point is, while most countries figured this out meanwhile. Some "wealthy" ones didnt.

[visarga]

That's because having too powerful telecoms is bad for innovation and competition. The final poisoned fruit of successful capitalism/corporatism.

[bjoli]

I don't know about Switzerland, but in Germany the overnment sold the rights to the 3g frequency spectrum for insane prises (billions of euros). The companies are still trying to squeeze out a maximum ROI while they still (??) have exclusive rights to the spectrum.

[kbwt]

15.99€ per month for unlimited LTE in France with 25 GB of roaming in EU+USA included. No binding contract duration, you can cancel with a month's notice.

Only catch is you have to also be subscribed to an ADSL line of the same provider, otherwise the mobile plan costs 19.99€ and gets throttled after 100 GB.