ATT charges $20/month + tax for unlimited texting alone. Which is about £12. For £12 (inc. tax) on GiffGaff in the UK you get:
- 250 minutes Calling
- Unlimited texts
- Unlimited Internet (no tethering, or £10 w/1 GB and tethering)
So Americas get massively screwed on their wireless services. The fact that tons of people on here are praising the insanely expensive "Unlimited" texting offers is just bonkers.
For the cost of just your unlimited texting in the US you can pay your entire monthly cellphone bill in the UK, consider that. And due to tax, surcharges, etc the $20/month is actually closer to $30/month.
T-Mobile has a $30/month pre-paid plan with 100 minutes, unlimited text, unlimited data (unsure about tethering). I really wanted to like the plan and tested it out in my area with a Nexus 4 I picked up for playing around with an Android phone (only had iPhones the past few years, so wanted it for both development and to see if it was practical for me to switch). Unfortunately the coverage sucked once I left the area since they didn't offer data roaming. Great along the interstate, terrible in the country (I often take the scenic routes when traveling long distances if I'm not in a rush, I hate driving on the interstate.). If I lived in an area with really good T-mobile coverage and primarily traveled to those sorts of areas it'd be an awesome plan, and similar in cost to what you're talking about.
it's part of the reason i dropped out of the major player market (AT&T, etc) and have moved to a second tier provider (in my case, net10). my bill is 50% of what it was for essentially the same service (minus visual voicemail on my iPhone, but it's not worth $600+/year to me).
unlimited internet (throttled at 2.5gig/month), unlimited text, unlimited minutes. $45/month = £26. Not perfect, but livable.
- 250 minutes Calling
- Unlimited texts
- Unlimited Internet (no tethering, or £10 w/1 GB and tethering)
So Americas get massively screwed on their wireless services. The fact that tons of people on here are praising the insanely expensive "Unlimited" texting offers is just bonkers.
For the cost of just your unlimited texting in the US you can pay your entire monthly cellphone bill in the UK, consider that. And due to tax, surcharges, etc the $20/month is actually closer to $30/month.