And lower population density. At least in the US, there's a ton of empty space with pretty good coverage. I imagine India has a lot less open space, so more paying customers per tower.
The salaries for people building and operating the infrastructure are probably a bigger component though.
Considering that, according to a consultancy I worked for, indian workers were 9 times as cheap as spaniards (comparing workers in our company), and spaniards are one of the chespest in europe, i'd say that the indian price is more expensive accounting income.
Yes, compared to income, but it only proves that prices are adjusted to milk consumers of as much as they can, and not to just cover expenses and make a reasonable profit.
Prices are adjusted form profit of course but there's also the workforce cost. Maintenance and support workers need to be paid accordingly to what people of the country earn.
If you factor that the 'reasonable profit' should also be scaled around the median income, the prices now make sense.
Now, you could say that both of those are inflated for excessive profit, but that's another discussion.
Judging by the prices in the various countries I've lived in, in Europe, mobile data prices are a pretty good indication of a cartel.
In my experience Germany is one of the worst (by comparison to what you quoted, I use to get unlimited 4G in the UK for £10/month some years ago) though my own country, Portugal, is even worse.
I bet there were "radio spectrum" or "mobile operator license" auctions won by a handful well connected large companies and there's nothing in the law forcing them to open their networks...
I pay that for 20GB, it's so fucking shitty having to be vigilant about your data spending, then they do a research here where they say most people don't spend the majority of their data. Of course we fucking don't, if you do you can't access ANY online service, you don't get shitty speeds you get no internet at all so most people don't risk it by going through the limit.
8 USD per month for unlimited data (100GB FUP) and unlimited calls to all network. Including unlimited high speed data for social media and gaming, no data cap. Malaysia.