Musings on global data retail practices - the selling of zeros and ones
Holiday in Berlin, Full Phone
So I’m on this business trip to Europe. Having lived in Taiwan for a decade and a half I’m quite excited to return to ‘the continent’, as Brits used to say, and experience what cities like Berlin have to offer in terms of lifestyle. Upon leaving Hauptbahnhof I seek out a SIM card - connectivity being of vital importance to a tech media chap covering the delights of IFA. The boss expects me to get the best subscriber contract a visitor can get in terms of overall bandwidth, but especially upload speeds so we can upload video on the hop throughout the week. So I’m looking for the best 4G SIM card I can lay my hands on.
Thankfully, there’s a T-Mobile shop in the station. After two minutes in the store however, I’m left standing on the kerbside outside, scratching my chin in a state of profound disillusionment. The conversation that led me there goes something like this:
“Hi. I’d like a fast Unlimited Data SIM card please.”
“Excuse me, what?”
“A fact unlimited data SIM card.”
“That is not possible.”
“Oh. I see.”
I look out of the window briefly to see if there are any other telco stores.
“Are there any other places that sell SIM cards around here?”
“Sure. There are several, but not here in the station.”
“Ok. Thank you.”
“But, you will not find Unlimited Data.”
I stop in my tracks and ask out of genuine curiosity.
“Really? Why is that?”
Perhaps there are rules about visiting foreigners and the kind of connectivity that can acquire. But sure not. Sure not here. The sales clerk stands up. Looks me squarely in the eye and informs me:
“In Germany, we do not have Unlimited Data!”
Standing kerbside. Initial reaction? I find it hard to believe that Germany has a limited ‘store’ of data that can only be dished out, rationed and paid for in byte-sized chunks. Like cake. But I’m in a hurry so I take her word for it and decide not to inquire further into the possible existence of any mythical German unlimited data plan. I head back inside and scan pre-packaged T-Mobile-brand SIM cards on a revolving stand. I figure 10GB should suffice for now at least.
How is it possible that folks in Europe are still paying ‘per byte’ for their internet? Do they know they’re being ripped off? It’s a conundrum that kept a light on in my head for some time, and one that feels once again very relevant as we enter the AI age.
But right there, as I install the new SIM, I feel somehow diminished, and even a little cheated.
Could it be…corporate profits, social rights, or technical proficiency? Or could it be all of the above, and more?
For context. In Taipei, I got my first mobile phone around 2004, and the first 3G data connected smartphone around 2009. I have never known a limited data, pay-as-go, or a top-up contract. In Taiwan, some tourists, students or grandmothers might use such contracts, but virtually every adult on the island has known nothing other than unlimited data - or ‘all-you-can-eat’ internet as the locals here prefer to say.
My first ponderings consider retail economics, weighing up different product delivery strategies, environmental and geographical factors, and the big bad presence of profits margins and shareholder dividends. T-Mobile just happens to be one of the largest telcos on the planet. They know what they're doing with the bottom line and how to squeeze every ounce out of customers. Cynical thinking from a left-leaning snowflake? Maybe. However…
Taiwan’s telecommunications industry is heavily government regulated - the dominant player being the formerly public-owned ChungHua Telecom, with smaller rivals FarEastone and others fighting for scraps. It always felt like internet access in Taiwan was rather like a civic right, in the same way that, thankfully, universal education, healthcare and other facets of social wellbeing are considered inalienable rights here in the Republic of China.
In 2003 most homes were offered affordable ADSL connections which soon evolved into high speed cable broadband connections at home, and fiber-optic fixed lines for commercial clients. Ubiquitous mobile connectivity spans back to 2004 and the first 3G connections - the last of which was turned off just two years ago after 20 years of service. As of early 2025, 5G user subscriptions in Taiwan surpassed 10 million, which means approximately a third of the population have unlimited access to the world’s fastest telecommunications technology.
Let’s repeat that again - a third of the population have unlimited access to the world’s fastest telecommunications technology. In their pockets. Every day. All the time.
To European and American ears this is probably starting to sound outright socialistic (and borderline communistic among our more fervent right-wing brethren). Internet access is not a right, it is a luxury! The generational gap in this analysis is startling btw and worth a look. To people my mother’s age, unbounded, unfettered, and unregulated internet access is, by definition, both morally questionable, and corrupting.
Unlimited data is another blow to the safeguards that keep young minds tethered to a morally straight road already broken and hobbled by liberalism, leftism, secularism or whatever ‘ism’ conservative voices prefer. Good old fashioned Lutheran economics must prevail. The flock must be cured of, or at least protected from, its own tendency toward hedonism, its predilection towards gluttony and sin. The Left Hand Path.
The internet (or more accurately, access to the internet) is the poster-boy of humanity’s descent into modern-day immorality. Lazy young ‘video gamers‘, thieving ‘downloaders’, dangerous ‘scammers’, and the morally questionable users of ‘pornography’. It has the power of technology to connect all of humanity without prejudice - Presidents and pedophiles alike. Do we really need it everywhere, all the time? Should it not be tempered? Scrutinized? Audited? Metered?
From a purely political standpoint, it’s hard to believe that the first democratic Chinese nation on Earth, one that has had a front row seat during some pretty catastrophic Communist-led regimes across the strait, is in fact a democratic socialist republic.
Again, all of this is hard to swallow, especially considering a) the historic socialistic traditions and left-leaning voices present in Europe, and b) the distinct lack of such voices in South Asian politics generally. Any form of social altruism seems unlikely in this case - at least it does through the framing of Western goggles.
Perhaps the reasoning for the sudden presence of spittle on the lips of an unassuming T-Mobile sales clerk is purely technological. In the stakes to provide an entire population with access to fast, reliable internet connectivity, Taiwan is ‘somehow’ ahead of the Germans? It’s a smallish island, yes, but has a dense population of 30 million and some of the biggest mountain ranges on the planet. If we remove geographical impediments, was Taiwan simply out the gates earlier in terms of infrastructure and investment? Leaving German consumers as unwitting victims of turgid infrastructural complacency?
Surely not. The Germans are globally revered for their technical acumen, their bombastic collective might and iron-clad work ethic. I can understand why YouTube might stutter in the Black Forest mountains of the Rhine, but surely the trendsetters of Berlin would demand full-bore, no-limits, worry-free, 24/7 connectivity - perhaps not as a human right, but as a symbol of national pride.
Perspective is the Mother of all Deception
I’m now starting to believe the answer lies in marketing, the ultimate art of product framing. Marketing dictates how you conceptualize a product (and much more besides). Examine the question logically for a moment from a purely marketing perspective and it begins to make sense.
In Germany, users pay for data. Bytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes, and Terabytes. Data quantified, chopped up into units, measured, packaged, and sold - then itemized with cold bureaucratic precision on your monthly bill. The framing is beautifully illustrative, easy to communicate, simple to understand, and wholly relatable to our everyday experience of the world and how it works.
From the perspective of T-Mobile, it goes like this:
We sell stuff. We count how much stuff you use, and charge you accordingly. If you ‘download’ 2GB of data, that is what you pay for. It is the same as when you purchase 20 bottles of milk in a supermarket, 20 liters of petroleum at a gas station, and 20 kWh of electricity from your energy provider. What could be easier to understand?
This framing is deeply flawed, but sadly, it’s also utterly convincing.
The deception lies in the idea that data is stuff. It isn’t.
The deception also implies that the internet is the source of the stuff. The stuff repository. It isn’t.