777
Anon lives on a budget (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/greentext@sh.itjust.works
310 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 29 points 11 months ago (28 children)

$115 a month phone/internet? Are US prices really that insane? My phone is £4 a month for unlimited calls/SMS and got an unlimited data SIM for a 4G router that costs £24/month.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 28 child comments
    •
  • [–] 10 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    That's about correct, idk what everyone else is on about, but my phone costs me $70 a month, and my Internet costs $60, and those were the cheapest plans I could get. Not to mention that the reason my phone bill isn't higher is because I had to buy my phone outright at $600.

    Shits expensive here, for no reason other than corporate greed.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Phone service is only expensive because your paying for the privilege of priority. Go with MVNOs and its reasonable, just the service is slower in congested areas.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    To add onto this, there are MVNOs for basically every carrier.

    Visible uses verizon, and their cheapest plan is $25/month, taxes and fees included. There's currently a promo that brings it down to $19/month for 26 months.

    Mint and metro uses tmobile. Metro offers unlimited at $25.

    Cricket uses at&t, they also have unlimited phone plans in the $25-35 range.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Anecdotally: I've lived in the sort of place he's describing and the internet was an overpriced monopoly. Farmers and people in larger cities both paid much better prices for better service. But the ISP had some deal where they had exclusive rights to run equipment on the power poles (or other companies needed their technicians present first or some bullshit which they would delay to the point of impracticality).

    At $115 he probably didn't get the lowest speed and could have done like $60 for internet and $40 for phone but yeah, I can believe it.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    4/5G, fuck their monopoly. If people leave they will have to actually compete. It's fine for gaming too, been using 4G for years without an issue. At some point I should upgrade my router to 5G though.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    If people leave they will have to actually compete

    Assuming people even have the option for a speedy, uncapped 4G/5G, or one with a very high cap. USA is known for abusive pricing on bandwidth, like "every GB used over 50GB will be charged 10 dollars"

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    that's cheap. i oftne pay well over $150 a month for basic interent and phone plan for single person.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (4 children)

    Oh wow, what companies do you use?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (3 children)

    verizon for both. it's the only choice i have.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

    Damn, lack of choice sucks. Have you looked into visible wireless? They're a Verizon mvno, so they'll have coverage wherever Verizon does. Plans are in the $20-$30 range.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (10 children)

    No, it's definitely on the pricier side.

    $30/line is a common price for unlimited phone service.

    You can get home Internet for $40-$50/month.

    I think I pay 25 for Internet and 30 for unlimited phone.

    EDIT: in fact if you're income limited there are cheaper government subsidized plans.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 10 child comments
    •
  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    You can get home Internet for $40-$50/month.

    That's more like $100/month once the temporary pricing ends and the bullshit fees are applied.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago*

    So the $40/month at mint isn't a promotional rate, and the $50/month price at Xfinity says it's good for 5 years.

    I mean you can find alternatives that do exactly what you're talking about, but I feel the examples I provided are valid, sustainable prices for Internet.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (7 children)

    Why would you pay $30 for unlimited data and then pay another $50 a month on top of that for a second unlimited data? Unless you are running a bunch of servers for people outside of your LAN, what is the point?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
    •
  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Don't know about US, but where I live, the "unlimited mobile Internet" is always "fast connection up to X GBs used, then you slow down to a crawl where loading a text-only website takes three minutes, but you're still technically not limited and can access the Internet" kind of deal.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (2 children)

    Not sure exactly what they go with but it's never been a problem even downloading several big games from steam. I suppose if you want TBs a month you may want to look into the fine print.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    I'm laying out what I think are reasonable options that folks would want. Unlimited cell phone data for $30 paired with a steady, low latency cable line for $50 seems to be a combination that most folks could use.

    It's definitely not optimized for saving money. You could save a lot of money if you wanted to focus on that. Helium mobile has a free 3gb/month plan, no credit card needed. For home Internet you'd be at the mercy of your local ISPs, but I'm sure there are more affordable plans that could be picked.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Most ISPs and cellular plans charge out the ass for arbitrary data limits and faster speeds in the U.S. Some areas have decent ISPs not trying to nickel and dime you but not super common.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •