Cable.co.uk has compared price of transmission of a gigabyte of data via mobile networks in 230 countries. The cheapest tariffs are in India, and Kyrgyzstan takes the second place.
The study was conducted in October-November 2018. In total, 6,313 tariff plans were studied, an average cost (in U.S. dollars) of transfer of a gigabyte of data for each state was estimated.
The highest average mobile traffic price is in Zimbabwe ($ 75.2).
The lowest price is in India ($ 0.26). Kyrgyzstan ($ 0.27) and Kazakhstan ($ 0.29) take the second and the third places respectively.
Russia takes the 12th place ($ 0.91). The United States is ranked the 182nd ($ 12.37).
Ten out of 20 countries with the cheapest mobile traffic are located in Asia. Four out of five the most expensive ones are in sub-Saharan Africa. Mobile traffic is also expensive in Oceania and the Caribbean.
As analysts at Cable.co.uk note, many countries with cheap traffic fall into one of two categories. Some of them have an excellent mobile and broadband infrastructure, which reduces the cost of traffic. Others have an underdeveloped infrastructure, where mainly mobile traffic is available, and the state of the economy forces operators to reduce prices to the level accessible to citizens.
Mobile traffic is often the most expensive in countries where the infrastructure is not very developed, however, consumption is also very low. People more often buy package services, for example, several tens of megabytes — the cost of a gigabyte is overpriced as a result.
States with a good infrastructure and a competitive mobile market are in the middle of the ranking. Although the price for traffic there is not the lowest, it does not seem too high for consumers.
