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Comment by jim_dot | Hacker News Reader

Never thought I'd say it, but I'm gonna miss Rogers when I go to the states - $30 for 6 GB + free tethering.

I am on Rogers, but right now I am on a Taiwan service that offers 30$/month for 3g and basic cell service. Free tethering and truly unlimited service. I am probably averaging a gig per day of usage and get about 100kb/sec. Skype works extremely smoothly.

Yes, but Taiwan is an island only somewhat larger than the state of Maryland, so telecoms have less area to cover compared to telecoms in the US.

And yes, tethering has been here since 3.0, and unlimited, but remember that the average Taiwanese salary is about 1/3 of what an American might make. Would you consider a 90$ unlimited and tethered AT&T monthly plan to be a good deal?

Still, not properly handling the two major cities where the phones are used the most is ridiculous.

> Yes, but Taiwan is an island only somewhat larger than the state of Maryland, so telecoms have less area to cover compared to telecoms in the US.

Yet, even in areas that are just as dense, we still can't get good cell coverage (SF) or fast Internet.

Well I agree, bad service in key markets like SF and NYC is just disgraceful.

Density seems to be a challenge, not a solution, for AT&T in those prime markets.

I can't imagine providing 3G coverage in Taipei or Kaohsiung is any different than providing it in NYC or SF. Lots of heavy users here too.

Sure it is much harder to provide 3G across Canada - but the providers don't have coverage in most of Canada. Even semi-rural areas in Southern Ontario an hour from Toronto have little service.

Just for comparison: in Finland unlimited / max speed 3G costs about 14 € per month (roughly equals $20). Tethering is allowed. We have population density of 16/km2 (32/km2 in the States). I wonder what is the sweet spot of population density for the cheapest possible 3G network? (Edit: the average density is probably pretty meaningless number in this context.)

I've found access to Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime and other US-only stuff more than makes up for it. It's a shame these offerings aren't available worldwide. Boo.

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