The United States hasn’t always had the best infrastructure, but with the massive expansion of LTE across the nation, high speed mobile data has almost become the standard. However, with the faster speeds come higher prices. Or at least that’s how it is for Americans.
The research arm of the GSM Association recently did a study on LTE in the states and quite honestly, the results weren’t too surprising. Through June of this year, there were only 27 Million LTE subscribers, half of which are in the United States. South Korea has the second largest market with 7.5 Million subscribers, and Japan is in third place with 3.5 Million.
LTE is still gearing up in Europe and while available in 21 different countries, is only used by 1.5 Million people. When it comes down to pricing, the United States has the most expensive service despite having the largest infrastructure. Looking at LTE offered by Verizon Wireless which has the largest spectrum, they typically charge customers around $7.50 per gigabyte.
Problem is, that’s three times more than what’s charged in Europe which is typically $2.50 per gigabyte. Even still, that’s ten times what it costs in Sweden which clocks in as low as 63 cents per gigabyte. I don’t know about you, but I want what Sweden is having and stat.