I live in India, and I pay a grand total of $5 a month for 2Gb(that's right) of data and I don't even know how many minutes and SMSs(no charges for incoming, btw). I am always shocked when I hear of people paying over $60 a month for a phone that they don't even own. The telco industry in India is ridiculously cut-throat because of their fungibility. I think over 90% of all mobile connections are prepaid here. Its working out beautifully. We also get really weird plans, like Rs.10($0.2) per website per month you access. Since there is competition and the telcos know their place, nobody gets riled up about this. It actually works out really cheap for a lot of people I know.
On the other hand, you guys are talking about LTE, and we still don't have 3G, so what do I know?
Sure. I own a G1, and I use it on the Airtel network. Call costs are 1paisa/sec(1 paisa is 100th of a rupee) to anywhere in the country, I don't even know how much an SMS costs, low enough that I don't notice. I pay Rs.98 a month for 2GB of GPRS data, which has quite a bit of latency, but enough speed for low quality Youtube streaming on EDGE. In total, it works out to about $4.5 a month. Unbelievable, right? This is actually the result of some pretty aggressive regulation by the Government, but also great competition. In fact, the Government recently mandated that the telcos make it possible for a person to switch networks without losing their phone number, further eliminating any semblance of lock-in they might have had. The downside of all this is that it has hindered the rolling out of 3G networks throughout the country. Personally, I would rather have a competitive, cheap telco market than a dysfunctional, expensive and confusing market even though it seems to lead to better technology.
On the other hand, you guys are talking about LTE, and we still don't have 3G, so what do I know?