this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2024
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Asklemmy

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[โ€“] [email protected] 51 points 4 months ago (6 children)

This seems like an American problem. This used to be the case in the Netherlands as well but over the years people have learned that SIM-only subscriptions are so much easier and cheaper that the majority of people now use SIM-only. In fact I know of no one around me that does it differently.

Also $45 per month is still expensive lol. I pay โ‚ฌ12 a month. Sure, not unlimited but I never call or SMS so the 100 a month I get for that is way more than enough and I never finish the 10GB of data a month either. I can make either unlimited for really not that much more.

[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

I believe a major factor in this was a ruling by the Hoge Raad that a "free" phone with a contract is unlawful and is actually a loan. Carriers now have to list the price for the phone and for the service separately, so it's a lot more clear what the costs of the phone are.

Also, a "free" phone is now registered as a loan with monthly recurring costs, which impacts for example the maximum mortgage you can get on a home.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Also in the Netherlands and I have recently extended this concept to my home internet. Since 25 Mbps download / 10 Mbps upload is enough for my use, I no longer have an internet subscription and I make use of $25 LycaMobile unlimited data sim cards for home internet using a sim router. The IMEI of the router can be easily modified, which is also a plus.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Do you have a static or dynamic IP though? For some applications one would want a static one iirc

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The IP is dynamic, but for my self-hosted services that require a static IP I make use of a WireGuard tunnel between my raspberry pi and a virtual private server. The VPS has a static IP, so my domains point at the VPS and then the VPS re-routes the packets via the wireguard tunnel. In a wire guard tunnel only the server needs a static IP, so the VPS can route packets to the client even if the client's ip is dynamic.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

If your're at the point where you need a static IP, then 25mb down is probably not going to cut it for you anyway.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

France is a bit similar, but a new phone company decided to cut down the costs by not providing a phone. 20 โ‚ฌ a month formore data than you'll ever need or 50 โ‚ฌ a month with the latest iPhone included everyone chooses the first option

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Nice, over here $45 a month is pretty cheap, at least in my circles. Most people I know are paying close to double that.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Have you checked price comparison sites recently? In germany you can get 10GB for 5โ‚ฌ now

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

I was recently comparing some phone plans and found that nowadays, you mostly just pay the actual price of the device, plus the normal subscription costs, no interest or anything.

Got a Pixel 8 Pro from Odido (awful service btw, would not go with them again). The device costs me 30 euros per month, for 2 years, which comes out to 720 euros at the end. That's actually cheaper than the normal resale price of ~870 (average according to Tweakers).

Actually thinking about it now, I wonder what the catch is. That kinda seems too good to be true.