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