MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

World gigabyte costs: India the cheapest and Falklands among the most expensive

Cable.co.uk. research found that one gigabyte (GB) of data cost US$ 0.26 (£0.20) in India but US$ 6.66 in the UK, and US$ 47.39 in the Falklands

A study into the amount people pay for mobile data has found that the UK has some of the most expensive prices in Europe. Likewise the Falkland Islands and Saint Helena figure among the five worst cases in the site Cable.co.uk. The research found that one gigabyte (GB) of data cost $0.26 (£0.20) in India but $6.66 in the UK, and US$ 47.39 in the Falklands.

The US had one of the most expensive rates - with an average cost of US$12.37 for the same amount of data.

The results were “disappointing” said Cable's telecoms analyst Dan Howdle.

“Despite a healthy UK marketplace, our study has uncovered that EU nations such as Finland, Poland, Denmark, Italy, Austria and France pay a fraction of what we pay in the UK for similar data usage. It will be interesting to see how our position is affected post-Brexit,” he said.

The study compared mobile data pricing in 230 countries around the world. The UK ranked 136th in the list. The global average was US$ 8.53 for 1GB.

The cheapest mobile data in Western Europe is in Finland with an average price of US$ 1.16 for 1GB of data. Denmark, Monaco and Italy all offer packages below US$ 2. There were 15 countries in Western Europe which had cheaper prices than the UK.

In Eastern Europe, Poland is the cheapest at US$ 1.32 per gigabyte, followed by Romania (US$ 1.89) and Slovenia (US$ 2.21).

The top five nations are: India - US$0.26; Kyrgyzstan - US$ 0.27; Kazakstan - US $0.49; Ukraine - US$ 0.51 and Rwanda, US$ 0.56.

At the other end, the bottom five nations: Zimbabwe - US$ 75.20; Equatorial Guinea - US$ 65.83; Saint Helena - US$ 55.47; Falkland Islands - US$ 47.39; Djibouti - US$ 37.92.

Africa has both the cheapest and most expensive prices, with Rwanda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo all offering less than US$ 1 data prices but Equatorial Guinea and Saint Helena both charging more than US$ 50 per gigabyte.

Asian nations make up half of the top 20 cheapest countries, with only Taiwan, China and South Korea charging more than the global average.

The reasons for the vast differences in prices around the world were complex said Mr. Howdle.

“Some countries have excellent mobile and fixed broadband infrastructure and so providers are able to offer large amounts of data, which brings down the price per gigabyte. Others with less advanced broadband networks are heavily reliant on mobile data and the economy dictates that prices must be low, as that's what people can afford,” he added.

“At the more expensive end of the list, we have countries where often the infrastructure isn't great but also where consumption is very small. People are often buying data packages of just a tens of megabytes at a time, making a gigabyte a relatively large and therefore expensive amount of data to buy.”

The research looked at SIM-only deals and included a range of packages from all the providers in each country.