cell (mobile) service is just way, way more expensive in the states. no justifiable reason, just cause they can and all do.

I pay €8 monthly for unlimited everything except international calls (its my work phone) and I think €20 for the other one.

I was just in the US for christmas and wanted data etc but my phone doesnt support eSim and the cheapest sim only plan was at&t and it was $40, it had a data cap of some kind and required a $15 activation fee. I used a lot of wifi during this trip.

my wife's phone can do eSim so she had unlimited everything for €25 or something for the ten days I believe, with Holafly.

In a past life I worked at the biggest telecoms company in the states and we'd be encouraged to sell people $89.99 a month and that still had a limit to "minutes". We also learned that the towers emit radiation 24 hours a day, and modulating said radiation costs the company essentially nothing at all, so the "minutes" thing is just pure profit

Not sure about the other guy but, In the US the sim itself is usually dirt cheap (like less than a 1$) but it's difficult to just buy the sim unless you buy it directly through the carrier.

I'm assuming if the price is as high as 60$ price it's including their monthly plan, I know a few carriers here offer BYOD kits for 50-60$ which include the sim, but those same carriers usually will offer a 3-5$ multi sim kit (a kit with a bunch of different sim card sizes) that is usually only obtainable via shipping so most go for the BYOD kit instead of waiting.

My provider (Wingo, Switzerland) wants 40 CHF (~50 USD, I remembered wrong) for a replacement SIM. Not sure about new signups

It says €14.99/month for life. And why is eircom now an Irish branch of a Jersey company? Tax dodging?