Fi's base price[0] is $20/mo + tax. Hallon (my current provider) will sell you 8GB/mo of data for $18/mo, tax included.[1] With Fi that would cost you.. $80/mo + tax. Hallon doesn't actually have anything comparable to that, price-wise; their most expensive plan is 100GB/mo at ~$40.
And no, population density is not an excuse either. According to Wikipedia[2], the US' population density is 33 ppl/km², where Sweden has 23 ppl/km².
Doesn't seem to be the economy either, the GDP per capita seems to within ~20%[3], and that's before taking into account the massive difference in income equality.
I'd love if someone could explain how this price difference is somehow reasonable, because this just boggles my mind completely.
[0]: https://fi.google.com/about/plan/
[1]: https://www.hallon.se/vara-produkter/mobiltelefoni/mobilabon...
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependen...
[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)...
What you are complaining about is the US Cell market, which is awful and has horrible prices compared to the rest of the world.
I usually buy a local sim card for data because it's usually cheaper than Fi per GB. However, I pick a different carrier than what I can access through Fi so I have more reliable access for work (and can use both using Speedify).
Having immediate data on arrival, a backup cell network, up to 10 data sim cards for free and access to my US phone number and it's incoming/outgoing calls via data on Hangouts is a godsend when traveling and working remotely.
And while you can end up paying $80/mo if you use >6GB, you won't pay any more than that even if you use more (though they will start throttling you at 15GB).
Do you find you need to use Speedify and tether often?
On regional differences, I see price differences as usually a combination of charging what they can, who they have to or want to compete against, cost of doing business, and how seriously they take the market. Or put more simply: either they have optimized for most money or they don't care enough.
1gb in Philippines is not even 50 peso. it's $10 USD with fi. 50 peso is $1. Prepaid.
in Japan 6GB pocket wifi is about 1500JPY, prepaid. With Fi, 1gb is $10.
In Malaysia, unlimited unthrottled LTE is $14 USD.
They're profiting like bandits.
I just run up the support and get what I want usually.
Fi created their own arbitrage opportunity out of convenience and brand image.
Their are cheaper plans within the USA for domestic data usage, if that is all you want. That’s not the point of Fi though
But that's hardly a problem anyway since getting a local SIM pays off quickly, Fi or not.
Does Fi run the carrier? I thought it used existing carriers and just supported seamless transition between them (and wifi). Regardless, the motivation would be to get that market they're missing that doesn't use one of the big 4. Granted Apple has never catered to that market, so not sure why they would now (it'd actually be detrimental to them IMO).
EDIT: Oh, and to the GP's point, seamless international use of your phone is a premium feature that might be valuable to customers. You could easily say "why do ____, they are already considered first class" for any new feature.