iPad Data Plan Cost by Country



iPad users in the United States are getting ripped off in how much they are paying for data on the device, says a company that has compared monthly data plans for the magical Apple device across different wireless carriers worldwide.

American users pay some of the highest prices in terms of dollars per gigabyte (GB) of data on the iPad, says Tableau Software, which created an amazing interactive chart (above) to show this.

Hong Kong and Singapore, which have the cheapest data rates for the iPad, have plans priced at less than one-twentieth the cost per gigabyte that U.S. users pay.

In the United States, AT&T is the exclusive data service provider for the iPad. AT&T offers two options: 250 MB of data for $15 a month or 2 GB of data for $25 a month. No contract is required for the plans. The iPad data plan in U.K. costs a fifth of what consumers pay in the United States.

“You can get a GB of data for 51 cents in Singapore,” says Ross Perez, a data analyst at Tableau. “What’s so special about the U.S. that we pay so much more?”

If it’s any consolation, the United States doesn’t rank as having the most expensive data plan for the iPad worldwide. That honor goes to France, followed by Belgium and Luxembourg.

Mouse over the chart above and check out how much the highest and the lowest data plans cost in each country and which carriers offer the iPad.

Chart and visualization: Tableau Software