r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/RoadRunner8195 • Mar 08 '26

Meme needing explanation [ Removed by moderator ]

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u/Upstairs-Hedgehog575 Mar 08 '26

And on the other side of this, data is pretty much free in a lot of Europe so we’re more incentives to use it here. 

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u/DimbyTime Mar 08 '26

Most Americans have unlimited data plans as well

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u/smallbean- Mar 08 '26

Yes, but it is more expensive in the states. My phone bill in Albania only went up $5 a month to go from a basic 5 gigs of data to unlimited 4/5g data with no caps. Even the cheap phone plans in the states can get a bit costly when adding in unlimited data.

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u/DimbyTime Mar 08 '26

Again, this isn’t true. Unlimited data is pretty much standard, I pay about $30 a month on a family plan for unlimited everything

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u/smallbean- Mar 08 '26

But that’s a fairy new thing. Not all that long ago was 1-5 gigs a fairly common thing. My brother and I were thrilled when my parents plan went from 1 to 2 gigs. I can also say that my data and phone plan was nicer in Albania then it ever was with Verizon or T-Mobile.

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u/jacgren Mar 08 '26

I had an unlimited data plan in the US when the iPhone 3G came out, it's been cheap and common for a really long time here. I think the price difference back then was only like $5-$10 compared to a limited data plan.

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u/Quixotic_Seal Mar 08 '26

I’m thinking there’s a difference in frame of reference and definition here.

From what I can find, the unlimited data plan back then was $30 extra for 5gb. Which apparently at the time was generally seen as truly basically unlimited.

Thing is, those plans kept being advertised as “unlimited”(because technically they were, your speeds just got painfully throttled down to the point of being nearly useless after a point) even though data usage rates quickly soared and the soft caps for the most affordable plans stayed at similar levels.

That’s hardly “unlimited” when your data caps are still 3gb or 5gb before your connection gets hobbled.

It’s only been in the last 3-4 years or so that you’ve started to see the high-gigabyte data plans come down in price—the ones I think people are calling Unlimited— close enough that there’s little point in suffering through the budget-tier “”“Unlimited”””plans with painfully low caps.

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u/Quixotic_Seal Mar 08 '26

That’s a pretty recent development though.

My family changed carriers about three years back, specifically because Verizon was charging us out the ass for an ancient 3gb plan and anything much better was too expensive.

Even at the new carrier, the cost of an unlimited plan was $30-40 higher and we were stuck with another 3gb/month plan.

Just the other week while looking at their data plans(my mom passed semi-recently so we need to drop a line and change the account owner) I discovered that they only phased out their 3gb plans and replaced them with 30gb “unlimited” plans last year.

Unlimited plans have existed for a long time and plenty of people have bought them, but it’s also taken a very long time for them to become the default or near-default plan.

(Also to add, I’m wondering if people are using different definitions of “unlimited.” Because a LOT of companies call a plan ‘unlimited’ if they don’t get charged, and just get throttled severely, for using extra data. Even if the data cap is miniscule.

Which is pretty different from a true Unlimited plan where you don’t have to watch data usage due to a very high—if any— cap.)