Specifically where does the mobile data originate from? Is it created, does it cost suppliers to “make” it, and do cell/mobile phone networks purchase it from elsewhere
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Mobile data costs consumers because an ISP (or cell provider in the case of cellular data) have to provide a means of you receiving that data. Anything you do on your devices that isn’t making a phone call on your phone is using mobile data. Data is both sent and received. If you type an email and hit “Send”, you are the creator of that mobile data which gets sent from your device to wherever you are sending it. If you are watching YouTube, every pixel of the videos you are watching is data being sent to your device.
So as for the who generates it, it really depends on what you are doing. It could be you generating it, as was the case when you made this post. It could be the application or site where you are getting that data from, or it could be that application or site is hosting data from someone else who uploaded it.
But back to the question in the title, you are paying for access to send/receive data. There are over 100000 miles of network cables just within the continental US. Add in the whole world and it is over a million miles of cable. Laying and maintaining that cable costs money. So you are paying your ISP both for that cable they have laid to make your internet access possible: the equipment you are using (cable/DSL modem), the wire they laid, technicians and network engineers to build and maintain that infrastructure, etc. For your phone, it’s the same thing, but instead of only using cable, they are also using massive cell towers they had to build all over the place to make sure you have cellular signal.
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