The Rising Price of Data

As I've mentioned several times, my ISP received a $175 million grant from the federal government to upgrade internet speed for its customers. They upgraded some places and appear to have pocketed the rest of the money. I'm stuck at 1.5Mbps with no other options. I followed wireless data plans for a short while. Prices were trending lower, but it was a very slow process. When I decided to come back and check it later, it was down to $130/mo for 30GB of data, which is about what I was using at the time. That price was too high to make it worth it. Once it dropped to below around $100/mo, it would almost be competitive with my ISP, which forces me to bundle phone service.

I recently bought a 4G phone that got me to looking at data again. Prices have gone up. 30GB is now $185/mo. 40GB is $260/mo. 60GB is $410/mo. Notice that two 30GB accounts would be cheaper than one 60GB account. $370/mo vs $410/mo. That's through Verizon.

Per GB, it looks like this:

30GB = $6.17/GB

40GB = $6.50/GB

60GB = $6.83/GB

It gets worse. In addition to getting a new phone, I switched phone companies to Red Pocket, an MVNO. As part of my search for a new company, I looked at a lot of MVNOs, including Straight Talk. If you're not familiar with MVNOs, they resell phone service from the big carriers but at a discount. Instead of paying something like $100/mo, you can find plans starting around $10/mo. That's with limited minutes, etc., of course. It depends on what you need. Straight Talk has an unlimited plan for $55/mo that includes 60GB of Verizon data.

Per GB, it looks like this:

60GB = 92 cents/GB

So, 60GB of data from Verizon costs $6.83/GB at $410/mo. But that exact same data on Verizon through Straight Talk costs 92 cents/GB at $55/mo. If a Verizon reseller can sell data for less than a dollar a GB, that tells me data costs Verizon nothing. The 4G network is completely paid for, as we already knew. It's all profit now. Cell phones and data plans are all on the same network. The cell phone plans and data plans are both cellular data. There's no difference between my having a phone using data versus having a computer using data. One costs a fortune, and the other is next to free. AT&T is similarly evil.

With 5G rolling out, 4G data should be dropping in price one would think. My electric company was supposed to offer 1Gbps internet where I live, but they reneged on their promise. I was supposed to get a 15Mbps plan for $34.05/mo. I'm less than a mile from their fiber line. It's very saddening.

Ah, well. The data quest continues.

Have a great weekend.