Broadband prices ranked – UK is 92nd cheapest in the world

Price comparison site Cable.co.uk has released a report listing what it reckons are the cheapest and most expensive places to buy broadband across the world.

The study was based on of 3,356 fixed-line broadband deals in 220 countries between 19 January 2022 and 30 March 2022. Syria apparently has the cheapest fixed-line broadband with an average monthly cost of $2.15 per month, which the report attributes to a collapse of the Syrian Pound (SYP) against the US dollar. Burundi meanwhile came in at the most expensive with a whopping average package price of $429.95 per month.

The UK sat roughly mid table with the 92nd cheapest broadband. Western Europe as a region was more expensive generally, and the UK came in at 10th within it. The US fared worse than that, clocking in at the 134th most expensive with an average package cost of $55.00 per month.

In terms of the five cheapest and most expensive, the scores on the doors are:

Most expensive:

Burundi (average cost $429.95 per month)
Sierra Leone (average cost $316.69 per month)
Brunei Darussalam (average cost $258.42 per month)
Virgin Islands (British) (average cost $184.00 per month)
Turks and Caicos Islands (average cost $170.50 per month)

Cheapest:

Syria (average cost $2.15 per month)
Sudan (average cost $4.80 per month)
Belarus (average cost $7.40 per month)
Ukraine (average cost $7.40 per month)
Russian Federation (average cost $8.07 per month)

In terms of regions the most expensive to cheapest is:

North America (average cost $89.44 per month)
Oceania (average cost $85.14 per month)
Caribbean (average cost $78.44 per month)
Sub-Saharan Africa (average cost $77.70 per month)
Near East (average cost $60.62 per month)
South America (average cost $55.17 per month)
Western Europe (average cost $49.25 per month)
Central America (average cost $43.87 per month)
Asia (Excl. Near East) (average cost $40.29 per month)
Northern Africa (average cost $22.41 per month)
Eastern Europe (average cost $19.90 per month)
Baltics (average cost $19.19 per month)
CIS (Former USSR) (average cost $13.96 per month)

“This year we have noticed a greater weighting towards currency devaluation in the top half of the table,” said Dan Howdle, consumer telecoms analyst at Cable.co.uk. “For example, first-place Syria, whose Syrian Pound has lost three-quarters of its value against the US dollar in the last 12 months. Island nations such as those in the Caribbean and Oceania continue to present problems when it comes to providing cheap, fast connectivity options. Those lucky enough to have an undersea cable running close by tend to be able to offer it, where others have to lean into pricier hybrid satellite, 4G and/or WiMAX solutions.

“It’s hard to see how more affordable connectivity for the general population will be coming anytime soon to those countries at the bottom of the table, plagued as they are with limitations that are geographical and geopolitical, and where there is a lack of desire in the marketplace for fixed-line broadband solutions.”

The report points to huge disparity between the cheapest and the most expensive places to get broadband, as you would expect. There are myriad factors that could effect such a thing, from infrastructure, geography, government types and geopolitical events. With regards to the latter, we’d point out that the study ended around the same time as the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, which may well have changed the picture with regards to at least those countries.

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