Mobile Internet and Phones

Not in my city.

Not here. Most people are pretty happy with the coverage we get and the new changes we are getting (free EU wide roaming)

Israel has amazing phone plans now. No contacts (anywhere!). I pay 59 shekels a month for 6 Gigs of data (which can be tethered to my tablet and other devices), unlimited calls and SMS messaging, unlimited no-extra-charge calls to Canada and the USA (both landlines and mobiles) and a free international phone number for friends and families in the USA to call me directly to my cell in Israel with a local U.S. number. It couldn't get any cheaper than this, and I'm very happy with my cellular service.

59 shekels is $17 at the current rate. Americans' heads will now spin.

I pay £26* for a new Samsung Galaxy S4 mini with unlimited texts, unlimited calls to landline or mobiles anywhere in the UK, capped international call prices and 500Mb of 4G internet, per month. I'm nearly a year into a two-year contract. In about 15 months I revert to a sim-only monthly contract as the handset will have been paid for and will be mine with no contract attached.

I wouldn't use an internet dongle, nor a mobile internet hotspot dongle - at best they are just a few mbps and, as you use them when roaming in rural areas (where there is no wifi), the signal strength is almost non-existent. You probably don't need them in towns and cities and you can, of course, just tether your mobile on those occasions you need the internet on your tablet or laptop, whereever you are and can get a mobile signal.

Mind you, with an ordinary mobile phone, I can stand on a southern UK beach and get a text saying Welcome to France Telecom - and start paying international roaming rates immediately!!

*£26 = about $44.40 at current exchange rate

I pay $220/month with AT&T 4 iPhone 5's, unlimited LTE data, unlimited text, we share 700 minutes, roll over minutes, free calls to any mobile.

Messianic Jewboy said:

I pay $220/month with AT&T 4 iPhone 5's, unlimited LTE data, unlimited text, we share 700 minutes, roll over minutes, free calls to any mobile.

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Mine is expensive too! I want Yonahs deal.

yonah_mishael said:

Israel has amazing phone plans now. No contacts (anywhere!). I pay 59 shekels a month for 6 Gigs of data (which can be tethered to my tablet and other devices), unlimited calls and SMS messaging, unlimited no-extra-charge calls to Canada and the USA (both landlines and mobiles) and a free international phone number for friends and families in the USA to call me directly to my cell in Israel with a local U.S. number. It couldn't get any cheaper than this, and I'm very happy with my cellular service.

59 shekels is $17 at the current rate. Americans' heads will now spin.

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Which server do you use?

CherubRam said:

Here in America most people pay about 50 dollars to 500 dollars a month. There are some free hotspots in some places. A single person normally pays about 50 to 100 dollars a month for Internet. Family plans cost a lot more. I think I will be paying about 75 dollars a month for Internet after all is said and done. I tried a cheaper plan but it was so slow that my computer could not load the pages. In other words, unusable. I lost 50 dollars trying that service.

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We have loads of free hotspots in cafes, restaurents, stores etc around the cities and towns. Some ferries now offer free wifi, along with a number of trains (in or near first class - there is bleed-over into near carriages). London Underground has free wifi. My home internet is a basic service at £12 (about $19) a month because I don't own the phone line and cannot get anything else, but it allows me to download films etc and watch them with no buffering - I can even watch some US programmes, live; there is no monthly download limit. Almost every home broadband in the UK has to be tied to the supplier's own telephone service, with Sky as the dominant provider, followed by Virgin and BT. My supplier is the only one that I could find who does just broadband through a normal home phone contract with a standard British Telecom phone line. On the bright side I don't have to pay for all the other bits I probably don't actually need, anyway .

anisavta said:

Which server do you use?

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Do you mean "provider"? I'm with Golan Telecom. It's one of the new competitors that opened up with the restructuring of the cellular company agreements. When I first came here, I was paying around 350 shekels per month ($100). The cell companies were forced to do away with binding contracts and to lower prices. Competitors were created to offer much lower prices and drive the market down. We now have a lot of choices with regard to cell service and prices are cheaper than ever.

yonah_mishael said:

Do you mean "provider"? I'm with Golan Telecom. It's one of the new competitors that opened up with the restructuring of the cellular company agreements. When I first came here, I was paying around 350 shekels per month ($100). The cell companies were forced to do away with binding contracts and to lower prices. Competitors were created to offer much lower prices and drive the market down. We now have a lot of choices with regard to cell service and prices are cheaper than ever.

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That is what the EU was supposed to do. However, they have imposed so many laws on all companies, now, that the costs involved in keeping within those laws means that, on the whole, prices rarely change to any significant extent, in a downward direction!

Within the UK we have Ofcom (Office for Communication) a quasi government body to oversee all communications in the UK but it has no teeth; it's a waste of time and resources in the face of the might of companies like Sky, Virgin, BT etc etc. We even have a Competition Commission that is charged with promoting competition within trade sectors, but it rarely initiates any controls or initiatives other than ensuring that no one company corners the market... except that Sky now controls what we can watch in, probably, 80% of all major sport events in the UK. I've never worked out how we have only one Competition Commission - isn't that oxymoron of sorts?

I would drop anything that tries to lock you into a long contract.