So this morning I had a scare. The indicator light on my Indian dongle was blinking red (false alarm.) Which was exactly why I bought a second one, in case shit happens, you know, dump a beer over it.
So check out the below. The Jio Indian dongles cost 2400 rupees each, $46 CDN.

I got the round one first, 350GB SIM card for 7200 rupees, $140 CDN. The other was 750GB SIM card for 10,000 rupees, $195 CDN (I could be here for a long time, or not, and wifi is essential to me, and power is freedom and now I have more than a terabyte over 2 devices), so if you go the more efficient route, data cost me
26 cents per GB
But there’s more: Jio plans at this link. Rs 1000 (rupees) is $19 CDN. You’ll see their best plan is considerably cheaper than what I paid!
Anywhere in the huge country, covered, apparently. It was everywhere in Nagaland, which is India’s equivalent of our Yukon.
I have a friend who is never wrong on the facts and he says Canadian data is the most expensive in the world.
Sure, I understand there are infrastructural cost differences, and we’re a big country, and I know little about the industry, but surely the extremely obvious first step is shuttering the CRTC and deregulate. But that would be so unCanadian: we love the regulations that protect us from ‘something’, you know, the imaginary boogieman that invariably fails to appear other than in the self-serving narrative of leftist hacks.
Why is this an issue to me? I don’t care, I can afford the typical Canadian extortion. But I have 3 kids and data cost is a line-item in their monthly budget and it shouldn’t be.