Netflix is Testing a Mobile-Only, $3 Subscription To Make Its Service More Affordable (techcrunch.com) 55
Netflix is testing a cut-price mobile-only subscription, priced as low as $3 for some, as it explores new packages aimed at widening its appeal in Asia and other emerging markets. TechCrunch: CEO Reed Hastings told Bloomberg last week that the company would test lower-priced packages and it hasn't taken long for those experiments to come to light. The first reports are from Malaysia, where Netflix quietly rolled out a mobile-only tier priced at RM17, or around $4, each month. That's half the price of the company's next cheapest package -- 'Basic' -- which retails for RM33, or around $7.90, per month in Malaysia. A Netflix spokesperson confirmed the Malaysia trial. They added that similar trials are "running in a few countries" although they declined to provide details. It remains to be seen if this new subscription tier will roll out to other parts of the world.
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Yea, but do you realize how much you're paying your mobile provider?
Over in Europe... 20 euro per month... unlimited 3G, or up to some absurdly high limit, 4G... I just tether my laptop to my phone when I get home... free international roaming... I'm pretty sure that type of service doesn't exist in the US for this kind of price point yet.
Cell phone plans are much more expensive in the US (probably in part due to population density. More infrastructure needed per person than in Europe. Poor Canada has it even worse- lower density and even more expensive than the US.
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I blame competition. There are markets (i.e. countries) in Europe the size of a smaller US state on the East Coast with 4 or even more cellphone carriers competing for customers.
USA has 4 carriers and 2 protocols (Score:2)
The United States also has four main carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile), and numerous mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) that use their networks. But US carriers also use two different 3G protocols (Verizon and Sprint on CDMA2000 and AT&T and T-Mobile on UMTS). Devices sold in a carrier's store tend to ship locked to one carrier, either explicitly through SIM issuer checks or implicitly through supported frequency bands. Devices sold in other major electronics stores (such as Best
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No carrier in the US uses 3G now.
Does this imply that the coverage maps shown in carriers' advertising no longer include areas that have not been upgraded to LTE?
(Even if so, frequency band support differences and explicit SIM issuer checks in phone firmware would remain a difference between US and European markets.)
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Locked phones here only exist as some sort of deal with a calling plan, i.e. you get your phone for free/cheap with a 2 year plan that you pay through the nose for. And afaik carriers are required to unlock them for you when the plan expires. Some started making this a marketing tool, since few users know that they basically have to do this anyway.
Population Density Excuse (Score:3)
Canada's cellphone rates rank among highest in 8-country study, report says [www.cbc.ca]
Re: Population Density Excuse (Score:2)
Those studies cherry pick the fuck out of the data. Every time I check one they claim that the cheapest plan is Canada is $40+. Meanwhile I haven't had a cellphone bill over $25 in the last decade. Obviously something is wonky with their methodology.
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Australia has a lower population density than Canada or the US but pays lower rates than both.
The vast majority of Australia's population is concentrated in cities along the coasts. The United States also has population density along the coast, but it's also much more spread out in the interior. It's a bullshit comparison.
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The population density excuse is frankly bull. Australia has a lower population density than Canada or the US but pays lower rates than both.
Canada's cellphone rates rank among highest in 8-country study, report says [www.cbc.ca]
There will always be exceptions to almost every rule- but Australia probably isn't a good example; sure, it's what, about 18 million people spread out across an entire continent, but a large % of the country lives around the South Eastern coast and a few other population centres like Perth and Darwin. I've not used mobile data in Australia but I imagine there are vast parts of the interior without coverage- so the density is probably quite high overall where they do have coverage.
In a lot of the US outside
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Australia has a lower population density than Canada or the US but pays lower rates than both.
Somewhat of a false equivalency though.
1) Canada's geography means it's much harder (ergo, more expensive) to deploy a cellular network than it is in Australia - Particularly out west and up north. Rarely do cell towers get covered in eight inches of ice and snow in Australia.
2) While it's true there are hundreds-of-thousands of kilometers of area in Canada with no cell coverage, there's still much better
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The person is lying or speaking about an old plan
http://mobile.free.fr/ [mobile.free.fr]
Per there site it cap
19 € 99 / month
15,99 € / month
for Freebox subscribers
100 GB Internet
SMS calls, unlimited MMS
Abroad :
25Gb internet (in 3G)
from + 50 destinations
Calls, SMS, unlimited MMS
from Europe, DOM, USA, Canada
Australia, South Africa,
Israel, New Zealand.
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You're cherry picking. We can throw out so cheap, no named mobile companies in the US as well
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BT is a premium brand more equivalent to Verizon in the US. A quick google shows that the equivalent line on Verizon is $75. Plus, with American carriers you never actually pay the price that is quoted, there are always all sorts of taxes and fees added on AFTER the cost. So (not with Verizon myself), I imagine, what you actually pay is probably closer to $100- almost double the price.
How much tethering (Score:3)
I get T-Mobile in the US for $40/month with unlimited everything (who still uses 3G?) with Netflix.
Does this include unlimited use as a mobile hotspot, so that a prospective customer who owns both a phone and a PC can make room in his or her budget for this $40 per month recurring expense by canceling the fiber, cable, or DSL subscription for his or her PC?
How to organize a mobile "carpool" (Score:2)
I get T-Mobile in the US for $40/month with unlimited everything
On T-Mobile's website [t-mobile.com], I'm seeing $70 for the first line, $50 for the second lines and a Netflix subscription, the third line free, and $20 for the fourth line. Your $40 per line figure is thus correct for three lines. So how would I go about finding others with whom to pool my money for a multi-line subscription?
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They hide search for a reason. They only provide value when you're not searching for popular shows and movies and seeing that none of them are there. It's a bad excuse, because I know what's there and I just want to go find it quickly. They also make that list that you hand-curated hard to find, because they don't want you to see how often their licensing changes.
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"Belgium is almost 3 times as expensive as that for unlimited data and makes no distinction between 3g/4g. I pay $40 for 8GB/month"
Luxembourg here, I pay 15€ for unlimited calls to all landlines and all mobile operators and also unlimited SMS and MMS and 'unlimited' data (slowed after 4 GB)
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It is not free. It is factored into whatever price you are paying your mobile and ISP providers.
Essentially what they already sell in USA for $8 (Score:2)
One device, no HD, delivered to an amazon stick instead of to my phone. $8. They're going to make the same thing available to phones for $4? In that case, I'll throw out my prime tv stick and connect my old Nexus 4 with the failed digitizer to my TV...
My TV is mobile, is it not? (Score:2)
And if not, why can't I root it and make it emulate the 3 inch screen on my phone?
Anything is mobile if you don't mind carrying it around with you
(Extension cord sold separately)
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Start of future price hikes to multi-device users? (Score:1)
Identification of 'mobile' device (Score:2)
How are they determining a mobile device is being used and can the identifiers be spoofed?
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Probably trivially. But then again, they probably also limit the resolution to 320x240 and mono audio so it's fine on a phone, but just plain unwatchable on anything larger
I'm sure everyone already thought of it already since people, especially Asians can be especially cheap.
classic capitalism (Score:2)
raise prices
fracture market
raise prices again
repeat.
It's a diminished service (Score:2)
David Lynch does not like it [youtube.com] ...
What's Wrong? (Score:1)
More affordable (Score:2)
For this package, available content has been reduced to one film - "Starship Troopers" - and one episode of "The Big Bang Theory".. the one where Sheldon is annoying.