So how expensive is life in the States, really? [relocation advice thread]

[Imran Siddiqui]

50 USD for a single cell line? Are you serious? Either that includes a LOT or America is really expensive? Over here you can get unlimited calls/SMS/MMS and 1 GB data for your cell for 30 bucks. There are deals that are even cheaper, if you use the cell very little. There are also family deals that makes each line even cheaper.

That's 50 before data charges, actually. I pay around $90 a month for 450 mins, unlimited SMS/MMS and 2 GB of data. The US is just expensive with cell phones, mostly due to how spread out the country is... ie, they have to pull cell towers in all those places, not just the cities.

[Ban Kenobi]

Do the Norwegian cell service providers tell rural dwellers to go **** themselves?

[Dinner]

50 USD for a single cell line? Are you serious? Either that includes a LOT or America is really expensive? Over here you can get unlimited calls/SMS/MMS and 1 GB data for your cell for 30 bucks. There are deals that are even cheaper, if you use the cell very little. There are also family deals that makes each line even cheaper.

Cell service providers are highly consolidated in the US and there is a lack of competition plus they aren't regulated effectively like in the EU so prices are high. Internet speeds are also low and costly for what you get again due to lack of proper regulation and over sight especially since in most areas a single provider of internet has a virtual monopoly.

That said you can find small regional cellphone suppliers who resell minutes from the major carries cheap as there is a law requiring major carriers to do this. That means you can find small companies like Cricket or Republic Wireless who supply supposedly unlimited voice and text for ~$18 per month. The problem is they're second class citizens on the network and the majors are allowed to bump them any time someone who is paying the majors full price want to use the network. For reliable service you have to pay ~$50 a month.

[Dinner]

Yeah, I blinked at the cell charges as well, but if NORWAY pays less, this can't be right.

So what is the verdict on the whole pregnancy/health coverage shebang? :/

As long as your visa makes you a legal US resident then you may or may not be covered depending upon the state you are in. Some states do allow legal residents without citizenship access to public programs while others do not. That should be a factor you consider when deciding upon which state to locate in. Also virtually all college students get health insurance as part of their tuition and each college has different policies so it is possible that one college could cover spouses of students while a different college does not cover spouses of students. Again this is something you should ask the school councilor about and it should be a factor you consider when picking a school.

[Nikolai]

Do the Norwegian cell service providers tell rural dwellers to go **** themselves?

Of course not.

[Nikolai]

That's 50 before data charges, actually. I pay around $90 a month for 450 mins, unlimited SMS/MMS and 2 GB of data. The US is just expensive with cell phones, mostly due to how spread out the country is... ie, they have to pull cell towers in all those places, not just the cities.

Norway has mountains en masse, hugely spread out populace, often in hard to cover places.

[Hauldren Collider]

However, Norway is much, much, much smaller than the United States. And despite having large swaths of extremely rural area, a lot more of the population is probably urbanized than in the US.

[Dinner]

As long as your visa makes you a legal US resident then you may or may not be covered depending upon the state you are in. Some states do allow legal residents without citizenship access to public programs while others do not. That should be a factor you consider when deciding upon which state to locate in. Also virtually all college students get health insurance as part of their tuition and each college has different policies so it is possible that one college could cover spouses of students while a different college does not cover spouses of students. Again this is something you should ask the school councilor about and it should be a factor you consider when picking a school.

BTW California does for allow foreign citizens who are legal residents to take part in both Medi-Cal (the state Medicaid program) and in the state ACA health care exchange plus the University of California system (Berkley, UCLA, UCSD, etc...) covers spouses automatically for adult students (who are over the age of 21 years) so you would be covered if your wife got knocked up while private schools, well, it varies by school. I'm not sure but you might want to check the coverage for highly ranked schools like Stanford (the only Ivy in the western US).

[Ban Kenobi]

However, Norway is much, much, much smaller than the United States. And despite having large swaths of extremely rural area, a lot more of the population is probably urbanized than in the US.

It doesn't look like Norway is more urbanized than the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization_by_country

The urban population percentage is 82% in the US and 79% in Norway.

[Dinner]

However, Norway is much, much, much smaller than the United States. And despite having large swaths of extremely rural area, a lot more of the population is probably urbanized than in the US.

I'm not sure. Norway has some of the largest agricultural subsidies on Earth. They aren't even part of the EU's Common Agriculture Policy because they thought the CAP wasn't generous enough. Norway spends massive amounts of its oil wealth enabling people to stay in agricultural jobs which have no net return on value and which both the farmer and the state lose lots of money on each year. The farmers don't complain because they get paid so much cash by the state they're living fat and happy despite the fact that the state pays them maybe $100,000 to produce goods which are only worth $30,000 on the market.

[notyoueither]

It doesn't look like Norway is more urbanized than the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization_by_country

The urban population percentage is 82% in the US and 79% in Norway.

Do you think they have towers in all the Northern fiords? Like, half or more of the country.

The US has a much larger coverage area proportionally, I'd bet.

[Nikolai]

Do you think they have towers in all the Northern fiords? Like, half or more of the country.

The US has a much larger coverage area proportionally, I'd bet.

Telenor, our biggest provider, reports 99,86% coverage of population abd 86,33% coverage of land, according to Norwegian Wikipedia.

[Hauldren Collider]

Probably has less geographic area to cover however, and doesn't the government subsidize it?

[N35t0r]

[notyoueither]

Telenor, our biggest provider, reports 99,86% coverage of population abd 86,33% coverage of land, according to Norwegian Wikipedia.

That would be impressive given the geography. I wonder how good the signals are in remote valleys.