[jcampbell1]

There must be an issue with the methodology. It is hard to reconcile $85 for 500MB when Virgin Mobile and Straight Talk offer monthly plans for $35-$45/month with a lot more than 500MB of data.

The mobile data situation for tourists is not good, but this chart and story don't accurately represent the US market for mobile data.

[hannibal5]

> but this chart and story don't accurately represent the US market for mobile data.

It says it's for prepaid in the title. Its not inaccurate just because it does not measure what you want it to measure.

[cbhl]

I would still have liked to see the same graph at 2GB and 6GB.

When I roam from Canada to the US, the incumbents charge something like $1 / 4 KB (yes, KB, not MB) of data for anyone on a post-paid plan, and deny data roaming to pre-paid users. I keep a T-mobile SIM around just for when I visit, even though I only use it for a few months every year.

If the cost of data is the same for 500 MB as it is for 6 GB (most prepaid plans I could find last time I visited were either 100MB with huge overage costs or 2GB+) then the relative expensiveness of the US goes down as the amount of data used increases.

I'm not saying that wireless data in the US isn't expensive -- it is. Besides, financial ITMPs are one of the most effective ways of regulating data use when bandwidth is finite.

[jcampbell1]

Prepaid generally means no contract. Straight Talk and Virgin Mobile are both "prepaid" by the American definition of the word.

I agree with the statement that "prepaid metered mobile data which rolls over and represents less than %0.5 of the market is vastly over priced in the US."

[williadc]

Both of the carriers he listed are pre-paid.