I’m wondering what service are we actually paying for every month. What does it actually cost to provide data and how do they turn your services off if you don’t pay. Even before the internet was on phones, what did it cost them to provide us with minutes? I understand the phone companies provide the phones, tablets, etc but aside from that I don’t really get what they do that costs so much.
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Bandwidth in the air is a at premium. Carriers pay the FCC (or equivalent in your country) for permission to use frequencies exclusively, but each frequency can only carry so much data. Minutes and data limits are intended to keep people from just using the service non-stop or exclusively, ensuring there’s air time on the wireless side generally available for people when they do need it. I mean… if there weren’t data limits, SO many people would just use their cell phone as their only internet and most ISPs would go out of business…. if the cell performance wasn’t horrible because everyone was using it at the same time and congestion ruined it.
After that, the carriers need to built the infrastructure for cellular. All those cell towers need to be set up, maintained, and connected to each other and the carrier’s main network. There’s software that routes calls, validates owners of SIM cards, acts as a data endpoint. Every decade or so it seems like there’s a Next Generation of cellular service that requires upgrades to everything, starting in the busy urban areas but still expected to roll out nation-wide. Enough wireless towers to cover the majority of the country isn’t cheap.
There’s general business costs… employees, electricity, building maintenance and taxes, and all that. Never underestimate how much salaries/wages costs.
And then there’s roaming. Oh god there’s roaming. If you want your cell phone to work in another country, let alone another provider’s network in the same country in areas where you don’t have cell tower coverage, those other companies are going to want to be compensated for having your customers on their towers. And of course I mean money. And if you want your customers to have a good experience away from home, you’ll pay the rates they specify. “It’s nice to be in the position of leverage for once,” said those roaming carriers.
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