I’m mostly working from home using a broadband “Fiber-to-the-home” monthly subscription, with a router handling the connection to computers and devices through Ethernet or WiFi. So I’ve very seldom used cellular data plans since I don’t exactly need to be connected each time I get out.
But recently, I’ve been to places for around one or two weeks at a time without WiFi, and my ISP has gotten into the habit of disconnecting for several hours once a month, so I’ve started to connect to 4G cellular networks more often. So far I had purchased daily or weekly plans from my bank app depending on my need for under two dollars a day or $10 per week for a 10 Mbps “unlimited” connection. Unlimited here means the company will not throttle the connection to lower speed after reaching a cap.
I had some problems with excessive packet loss (> 70%) from time to time on my computer while using my Android phone as a WiFi hotspot, so I asked whether people had the same problem. But one person wrote about the price I paid for my plan:
Currently AIS are offering 100 GB of “Max speed” data, over a month, for 150 baht.
All networks have SIM packs that supply unlimited data capped at 10 Mbps for twelve months. Prices range from 1400 baht to 2200 baht. DTAC: 1400 baht, Truemove H; 1900 baht, AIS; 2200 baht.
Monthly option from all; 300 baht.
300 baht for seven days is relatively poor value.
Prices are in Thai Baht since I live in Thailand. For reference, the exchange rate is around 31 Baht to the US dollar. I ended up purchasing a DTAC SIM card (as shown above) for 1400 Baht or around $45 for 10 Mbps unlimited data for one full year on an online shop (Lazada). My girlfriend just bought a 990 Baht ($32 US) 6 Mbps unlimited one-year plan since she was not aware of those options either.
I still have the same “random” packet loss issue, but it seems related to the hotspot function in my phone, as testing the speed and pinging from the phone works well, and I only get troubles with my computer. I’ll have to find a solution or workaround, maybe get a 4G USB dongle or 4G mini router and see how it goes.
Anyway, I’m surprised cellular data connectivity is now so cheap, as in my case it’s under $4 per month. So I’m wondering if prices have come down around the world. Feel free to share cellular data prices in your country if you please.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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Do you have the package drop when you use Android USB Tethering?
USB tethering did not work at all. I could select USB tetherring as option in Settings, but the USB connection is not stable, so I never got the option to use USB tethering, as it’s automatically disabled somehow.
That works very well on my mi A2 as well as on Samsung A8. Its as stable as with a 4g dongle and better imho than a mobile router, i mean i would prefer openwrt/fritz box with a usb tethered phone for flexibility
Well actually my setup currently is 4g in Huawei router connected to fritz box by ethernet…
Triple NAT or so.
I leave in Romania and here the cheapest plans (post-paid) are around 2 euros (2.4 usd) for 50 GB of traffic ( even 5G if you get any signal/have compatible device) then capping to 256kbps until next month. for prepaid i think the cheapest are unlimited 4g (not sure about speeds) for 5 euros (~6usd) /month – there are some FUP terms which will probably suspend your sim if you do like 1tb/day traffic 🙂
Romania – Digi RCS-RDS operator, 6 eur/month unlimited mobile 4G traffic + 6 eur/month unlimited traffic 300Mbps optic fiber.
In France, I pay 14€/month for unlimited voice & 80GB (without speed limitation, I already got 300Mbps) and no packet loss 🙂
Sometimes, some providers offer 200GB for 15€/month, I used one on a huawei lte router before having a fiber.
In Italy official price from the major operators is 12-14 euro/month for 50GB.
But you can have lower prices from minor and virtual operators 7-9€/mon for 90-100GB. If you are lucky and you are changing operator, you can also get some discount offer down to 6€/month for 50GB.
In italy I always used to suffer from not having a codice fiscale as a tourist. If they compile the application by hand it wont activate before the holidays are over. Not sure if that’s still the case nowadays…
France here, I pay 12€/mo for a discounted plan at a major carrier. I get 70 GB/mo plus unlimited phone calls and messaging. Tethering is allowed in my plan, at least I did use it successfully a couple of times.
In South Korea,
5G network(~400Mbps): 300GB/month is around US$40. (after using 300GB, unlimited data at 10Mpbs)
4G network(~80Mbps): 160GB/month is around US$20. (after using 160GB, unlimited data at 3Mbps)
I pay about the equivalent of $18 a month for unlimited data att “full” LTE speed, whatever that might be where I am at the time.That’s anything from 10-150Mbps depending on the location, although I get around 40Mbps at home, which is good enough as a backup for the three times in a decade that my internet has gone down.
you haven’t where you are 🙂
It’s ok, CNX knows where I am.
$AU30/30GB/30days 4G prepaid in Australia, unlimited local calls and SMS.
(My apartment still only has ADSL2, and no NBN yet, so I didn’t bother connecting to it when I moved in 2 months ago.)
that’s expensive…
Yes, that’s Australia for you!
$5.5 for 40 GB, 500 minutes and 50 SMS messages package. The unspent traffic, minutes or SMS are transferred to another month.
Household wired connection is $12 for 200 mbit/s symmetric fully unmetered.
Russia.
Italy here :
Around 25$ for unlimited voice / sms and 120 GB of data in 4G. No limitations to your data unless you finish your gigs. In that case you’re cut off from data network
In US we pay $150/mth for 4 lines wireless with unlimited talk/text and 10GB 4G data. 4G base station in car is another $40/mth but it has unlimited data. In the car the phones use the base station. At home $100/mth for unlimited 1Gb fiber. The US has some of the most expensive Internet access in the world. For another $30-40 we could take the cap off from the 4 lines, but there is no real need to since the car handles most of the traffic. And of all of this money and the cell phones don’t work inside our… Read more »
Best I know in UK, is unlimited calls and texts, unlimited data 3G, 4G. On offer at £18, on a 30 day rolling contract.
France here, 10€/month for (practically) unlimited data AND 25Gb/month roaming data when traveling to many countries of Africa, America, Asia(including Thailand ;), Oceania and of course Europe.
I pay an equivalent of 7 USD a month for 80GB of data (plus unlimited calls and SMS)
tethering works no problem (no restrictions)
same contract with 500GB of data (5G speeds) cost about 15.5 USD
prices in Israel are great
see this –
https://www.cable.co.uk/mobiles/worldwide-data-pricing/
Fiber optics land network also prices ok..
speeds of 1Gbps is about 30USD per month.
speeds of 600Mbps is about 26USD per month.
speeds of 300Mbps is about 23USD per month.
cheapest you can go is 100Mbps (VDSL2) for about 15USD
US, phone is on a T-Mobile prepaid plan. $15 / month for a capped 2.5 gigs (but full priority) and unlimited minutes/texts. My tablet has a T-Mobile prepaid Mobile Internet plan for $5 / month which gives 500 Mb of high speed data and unlimited 2G (128Kb/sec capped) data.
USA T-Mobile has a home 4G/5G Data “Only” broadband plan that is Unlimited Data with No-Cap for $60/month with modem/router included at no extra cost. Compared to the DSL only ISP providers for the same rural location are charging $80 to $120 per month for Unlimited Data with No-Cap but a pitiful 10 Mbps.
I don’t use it for home internet. My home internet is FTTH 75 Mb synchronous for about $80 a month. There are cheaper options but it supports a local cooperative company and not some megacorp.
Freenet Funk offers 1€ per day unlimited plans with 225mbit/s limitation in Germany. French ISPs offer quite good mobile conditions as well, afaik.
UK here, I’m paying 16 GBP/month for unlimited calls, texts and data at 4G speeds. I’m also paying 8/month for unlimited calls, texts with 3GB of data and a partial refund for any unused data at 1GBP per GB, that’s in my pinephone as a secondary phone.
Germany is well behind most of its neighbours, I pay €7 for 3GB of high-speed data (after that it’s down to 384kpbs, or you pay for another block), valid for four weeks. The largest monthly amount you can pay for is usually 15GB or 20GB, at around 1€/GB. There are some unlimited options for around €30 a month, but there is usually a catch, like having to stay with that provider for 24 months.
In Germany Internet connection is mindboggling expensive.
35 EURO for unlimited on O2.
80 damn EURO for unlimited on Telekom.
And no free pairs for DSL in my town. And even if I get a pair, 16 mbps would be the maximum I will get.
In Vietnam there is no official unlimited package. But on black market still alot of special sim card (for special type sale event) with unlimited capacity and about 60MBps bandwidth with price 28$ for 6 months package
In Brazil:
Unlimited 4G, SMS and voice plan: $20/month (Oi mobile)(no speed limit, but usually gets 50Mbps down and 30Mbps up)
There is another company (Called Veek) that offers a free 1GB/month data plan and voice for seeing Ads in their app
10$ month for 2000 minutes, 300 SMS & Unlimited data on phone/modem.
4.50$ for 100M “fiber to building, eth to apartment”.
Russia, medium sized city (~200+k ppl).
In the US, the best tethering plan is Visible ($25-$40/month, $25 is for groups of 4+), since tethering is unlimited but capped at 5Mbit/sec BUT you have to have one of a few select phones (mostly late model Apple and Samsung).
Mint is another low cost choice; if you buy a year, 15G/month (including tethering) is $25/month, and unlimited phone (tethering is limited to something like 5GB) is $30/month. There are lots of unlimited plans in the $40-$50/month range, but most do NOT have unlimited tethering.
So, yes, more expensive than most countries.
I pay $10 (USB) every three months and get 200 minutes/messages for that time period. Data is $0.10/MB.
Spain here. 50Gb + unlimited calls and SMS, 15€ monthly. But there also other plans with unlimited everything 5G speed for 50-60€ month.
In Estonia i pay 21€uros (about 25U$D) per month for unlimited 4G-LTE speed, data, voice and sms. Around 20-100Mbps depending how crowded the spot where you at and what your phone can do. Includes 12Gb data outside Estonia but inside European Union.
Second and every next contract are 10€, so i have 3 SIM cotracts, also 1 for wife and one for mother 🙂
Using it as main connection tothe internet, (youtube uploads, sometimes torrent etc)
“Landline” maximum would be 1Gbps speed for 99€/month , fiberoptical cable hangs at apartment door.
Vietnam, I have 30GB for $2 a month. Never reach the limit because all the coffee shops here are wifi free.
For your packet loss issue. Try looking at your mtu size. I think LTE standard is 1428.
There’s two PPP sessions, one setup for your phone and the other one for tethering – the second one seems to be heavily QoS’ed.
At least, that was how it worked at the time we were all using usb tethering.
I’d suggest you to check that and if you confirm this scheme, find a way to trick your provider by tunneling all your data through the phone’s ppp session.
Unlimited data for less than 20$. Living in France.
Those routing problems with Android are almost always caused by accumulated TCP connections. There’s various fixes for that, but one easy way is to use a VPN at your PC so your phone doesn’t masquerade connections any more. Then the phone is just passing packets over a single connection. If you have access to an external SSH host you can use it as a Socks5 proxy and then use that as your system proxy. Or you can use a VPN service like PIA.
Switzerland 20 to 30$ per month unlimited national calls/sms unlimited data (up to 5g), no roaming/calling abroad included.
Data only im having an unlimited sim for 10 speed limited to 20 mbps same can be had for 15 without speed limit, but well not when i got mine…
Prepaid is about as “cheap” as a satellite phone…
try digitec mobile, been using sale vouchers for a while now… paying ~$10-13 for unlimited data/calls/messages at full 4g speed with 1gb/month roaming in eu/usa.
Only caveat : at this price it’s effectively a one year prepaid style contract. and you must team up with 4 friends or have a big family
Lol ok good tip!
But I’m not considering any contract anymore that has a notice time of more than 2 months…
Btw. which network operator? Let me guess sunrise? Best offers but no reception at work, and in lift I’m ending up in roaming, every morning getting an sms regarding corona requirements when entering Germany from the German federal government is no fun 😀
Current lowest broadband plan 8.2$/month 40mbps (unlimited)+ unlimited landline calling. And for same 84 days mobile 4g data plan 1-2gb high speed than reduced per day +unlimited calling & SMS + free services movies, song TV app. Country :India
Jio?
The cheapest broadband in my area (Hyderabad, Telangana, India) is from Tikona Wireless Broadband (Rs.399/- or US$ 5.45 per month for 30 Mbps Unlimited, payable for 1 year in advance). I personally alter between Hathway Cable Broadband (Rs. 425/- or US$ 5.8 per month for 50 Mbps 1TB data) or Jio Fiber Broadband (Jio-399, Rs. 470.82 or US$6.43 per month for 30 Mbps 3 TB data). As a backup, I have activated a Jio-4G Mobile Data plan (Rs. 1299 or US$ 17.74 per year, 12 GB data). Its relatively easy to scale up the Jio-Fiber plan from 30 Mbps to… Read more »
Indonesia, 3,
I pay IDR3k/day (USD0.20)for 3GB (2GB 00-09 + 1GB 00-24).
It is old promo package, though, new registrant cannot buy.
Current promo is something like IDR5k/day (USD0.33)for 5GB (3GB 00-09 + 2GB 00-24).
Spain here: 3euros/month prepaid with digimobil (rcs & rds), 100 mins, 1gigabyte, one of the smallest and chespest rates in our market.
In Germany, I pay 7.99 for 3GB and flat calls and sms.
In Greece, I pay 17.5€ for 2GB and 2000′ mins calls and 200sms.
Greece although is a bankrupted banana republic, has by far the most expensive rates in EU and probably also worldwide.
I am paying a 10 euro per month prepaid from Orange Romania for 50 GB of 4G+ Internet (it translates to a little more in actual EUROS, about 11.7 actual euros). We get about 6 GB in Roaming and we also get a lot of bonuses that push the 50 GB limit higher up. I also have an Internet stick from another telecom supplier (Digi) for about 10 lei ~ 2.01 euro that I am using in my car. Digi does not even compare to Orange or Vodafone in overall coverage and signal quality, the 2 major telecom players in… Read more »
In France, budget plan 5€/month for 20 Gb + unlimited call/SMS – 4G-LTE @ 100 Mps
Due to some problems to have fiber to home on my condo (Phratamnak, Pattaya) and 3BB was not so more reliable.
I finally choose to buy 3g/4g Router from TP-Link TL-MR100 and bought a AIS plan.
Now as I’m always home I changed package the plan for a best quality-performance/price convenient for my usage.
MaoMao1800Baht Unlimited at 6Mbps 6Months
In Portugal, Nowo provider.
1 GB, 5000 minutes/SMS charges 7.5€
3 GB, 5000 minutes/SMS charges 10€
10 GB, 5000 minutes/SMS charges 15€
20 GB, 5000 minutes/SMS charges 20€