BritishGuy36

Do the math.

UK average population per sq mile = 666

[Contiguous] US average population per sq mile = 104

= many more towers needed. Infrastructure costs are way higher where the land mass is greater per head of population.

Manc

It's a sound theory until you ask Why should someone in say, New york City pay the same price on Verizon then, as someone whom lives in shitkicker Montana?


anyways, with Metro PCS and Boost and even Walmart, there is no real need to have a contract if you don't want one or the latest fancy dan phones.

Speedwell

I worked as a temp for Sprint PCS when they were first scouting locations for cell towers around Atlanta. It's exactly what you think; high-traffic locations subsidize low-traffic locations.

Poppy girl

I am now dropping my ATT&T contract from paying $150 a month average to PAYG for $50 unlimited and keeping the same number!

kodokan

I brought an unlocked iPhone with me when we moved over, and now pay $50 a month to T-mobile for unlimited phone, text and data, plus another $10 a month for unlimited international calls (to landlines only). Given we don't have a landline, it's not too bad a deal - it's nice to chat away to my parents for as long as I like without them worrying about the cost.

Poppy girl

I don't think many folk have a landline anymore do they!!

That's no contract right!

Scouse Express

I have a Landline.......just to keep in touch with Blighty. 4 Cents per minute, through my Cable Company.


Jim.

Poppy girl

Is the landline an extra or included in the cable payment/bill

Scouse Express

Part of the Bundle. National Calls, both long distance and local are free of charge.

Jim.

Yorkieabroad

We've got 4 phones on a family plan with T-mobile. Share 1000 minutes (we never get anywhere near that), 2 of them have unlimited text, 3 of them have unlimited data, although only the first (I think) 5GB is at full speed - apparently it slows down after that. My line has unlimited international landline calls. We've been with them since we arrived (c.12 years) and take 2 year contracts, which gets us an upgrade phone every 2 years. I just renewed to a mytouch ($20), wife got a samsung something or other (Free), and eldest son got an HTC One (Free).

We pay 120-130 per month total for all 4 lines - can't work out why the variation and have given up trying. ... took maths to degree level, but clearly post grad was required if I wanted to understand an 18 page cellphone bill!

Poppy girl

Thank you

Guindalf

We got rid of our landline a few years ago. It's still active because of the DSL, which means I get free incoming calls and also 800 numbers. Anything else outbound is charged at 10 cents a minute, so we use our cellphones all the time.

I covered the Blighty problem with a Rebtel account - 1c/min to UK landlines.

Yorkieabroad

We keep toying with getting rid of the landline, but its all bundled in with comcast cable tv/phone/internet security monitoring, and if you drop one they screw you on the package (well, screw you more than normal!). We've now found a company that will do wireless monitoring for a reasonable fee, so probably going to drop cable tv (go to Dish), drop the landline, just not sure what to do about internet....even the local dish rep reckons he uses comcast cable internnt instead of this satellite dishnet thing they offer.

Getting more vaguely back on topic (sorry), we get lousy cell reception in the house (allegedly something to do with the foil backed insulation in the outside walls) so we got one of those bluetooth home phones a while ago that lets us pair our cells (up to 4 I think) with the home phones so the home phone rings i/o the cells when we're at home. Means we can answer/make calls on multiple extensions, and don't have to stand near a window to get reception! Well worth the money.

ChocolateBabz

We just switched from AT&T DSL (phone and internet) which was costing almost $100 per month but included their 'international' package which was a low cost per minute to UK but cost an extra $5 per month. We now have AT&T U-Verse for phone and internet (8 times faster internet than the DSL) for $65 per month for 12 months. But I will dump the phone after the first year. We use Skype and Facetime now for all UK contact.

FYI friends who have AT&T for their cell phones complained that reception was awful inside their home and got a free booster thingy (looks like a router). Neighbours are always wandering around outside on their phones??

Hubby luckily has phone through work so no cost to us, dude has his PAYG iphone and I have dudes old and crappy phone but I really am not into the whole cell phone thing, so its either not charged, not in my bag, or out of $$ I try so hard to remember it when I am out and about in case the car breaks down or something but I am just useless with it

Pulaski

It's likely true because you are living in an improvised "Faraday cage", which greatly reduces if not eliminates completely (when fully grounded and without windows) radio frequencies.