Cellular "home" internet

[Korth]

Moving. Setting up internet, some kind of wired broadband. Comparing the usual choices (Telus vs Shaw).

And a Google ad caught my eye. "Chilliwack ISP", lolwut?

A little searching and I realized all the usual wired options are still around - ISDN, DSL, cable, ether, optic - along with satellite and ham radio networking stuff - but now there's also wireless home/business internet providers. Fixed WiFi internet. Cellular 3G/LTE internet. 

I see some options - like 25GB 5mbps/1mbps across 3G for $19.95/month - or 100GB 15mbps/1.5mbps across LTE for $35/month - even 500GB 25mbps/2.5mbps across LTE for $47.99/month - which are laughably pathetic compared to wired gigabit but which are also utterly phenomenal compared to cellular Data plans.

"Home" internet which can be accessed outside your home (coverage across all of Chilliwack and aout half the Fraser Valley in my examples). No hardware to install, no installation charges, just configure the network settings on your phone. 

This seems like an awesomely cheap mobile data solution for mobile data addicts! 

But surely there must be a catch? A tradeoff? Some hidden cost? 

All I can think is that you could need an unlocked dual-SIM phone... indeed, maybe you don't, I'm not even sure if these 3G/LTE ISPs are even phone companies with registered SIMs (since they obviously don't provide proper phone service, unless you install VoIP or Skype or some other voice-over-data app, lol, it's already all digital so it seems kinda arbitrary and overcomplicated to me). 

https://www.findinternet.ca/en/chilliwack-british-columbia

[Korth]

The telcoms sell mobile data in parsimonious quantities at inflated prices because people keep buying it (and keep demanding more). They are motivated to drive their ARPUs up. They are unmotivated to make a valuable commodity into a cheap fare.

But I find it curious that most Canadian Data Plans are roughly similar to most USA Data Plans. The USA allows (and theoretically encourages) aggressive competition... so why don't any big USA-based telcoms offer these sorts of relatively huge data buckets if it can be done cheaply enough to make profit? (I'm guessing because infrastructure has to support much heavier data throughputs and while that can be done profitably in local "zones", it would become prohibitively costly to build and operate this sort of network density across larger scales.)

Still... $20 for 25GB mobile data (or something similar) is a great option if it's available in your area. 

[will13am]

In many remote parts of Canada where the cellular network reaches but nothing else, cell network based internet is offered to the residents at a reasonable price.  This says a lot about how cheap it is to deliver an incremental GB of data.  Sadly, data is sold in traditional cellular plans as if it is a non renewable that is more scarce than rare earth minerals.