{"id":386,"date":"2012-10-24T17:56:16","date_gmt":"2012-10-24T21:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/4g-lte-costs-too-much.html"},"modified":"2012-10-24T17:56:16","modified_gmt":"2012-10-24T21:56:16","slug":"4g-lte-costs-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/4g-lte-costs-too-much.html","title":{"rendered":"4G LTE Internet services costs too much, can come down"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nMore people would buy 4G LTE if the price was lower,\nwhich we know is possible because it is 2 to 10 times lower in Europe.\nAnd then a lot more people around here would have fast Internet service.\n<\/p>\n

\nKevin J. O’Brien wrote for the NYTimes 15 October 2012,\n\nAmericans Paying More for LTE Service<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

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\n\n\"Vodafone<\/a>\nA comparison by Wireless Intelligence, a unit of the GSM\nAssociation, suggests that being in the biggest LTE market has not\nbrought low prices to U.S. consumers.\n<\/p>\n

\nAccording to the study, Verizon Wireless, which is a joint venture\nof Verizon and Vodafone, charges $7.50 for each gigabyte of data\ndownloaded over its LTE network. That is three times the European\naverage of $2.50 and more than 10 times what consumers pay in\nSweden, where a gigabyte costs as little as 63 cents.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nStandard business practice:\nsell a new service for as much as the market will bear,\nand come down in price over time.\nExcept in the U.S. there isn’t much of a market,\nwith only 2 or 3 wireless carriers offering 4G LTE,\nas the article notes:\n<\/p>\n\n\n

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\nBut another big reason for the trans-Atlantic discrepancy in LTE\ncosts, Mr. Dewar said, is a difference in the levels of competition.\nEurope has the greatest number of operators selling LTE: 38 of 88\noperators worldwide. Even small markets like Austria, Finland and\nPortugal have three LTE operators.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nI like\n\nthe speeds<\/a> (more than 20 times the upload speed of AT&T’s DSL).\nI’m not so fond of the price:\n$80 for 10 gigabytes per month, and $10\/gigabyte over that.\n<\/p>\n

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\nBrenda Raney, a spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless, which is based in\nBasking Ridge, New Jersey, said the Verizon Wireless LTE plan cited\nin the study also included unlimited voice minutes, unlimited text,\npicture and video messages shared among 10 different data-capable\ndevices and a mobile hotspot on the smartphone. Having a data-only\nplan, Ms. Raney said, would reduce the per-gigabyte charge at\nVerizon Wireless to $5.50 \u2014 still be more than twice the\nEuropean average.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n\n\"Verizon<\/a>\nI have a data-only plan, and $80\/10GB is $8\/gigabyte, not $5.50.\nNow Verizon does offer in other states, such as Tennessee,\na \nHomeFusion Broadband<\/a> 4G LTE service with better rates:\n<\/p>\n