The last decade or so has necessitated us to add mobile data into our daily budget. Smartphones are the easiest ways for us to access the internet and therefore pricing is important.
The pricing of the same amount of mobile data varies around the word. This is aptly shown with a report by Cable UK where they compared the cost of 1GB of data across countries around the world.
They analyzed 5,554 mobile plans in 228 countries globally where they found some interesting insights. 7 of the top 20 cheapest countries are in Asia and five of the most expensive countries are in Sub Saharan Africa.
According to their report, India charges the least for 1GB of data globally. They found that they charge only USD 0.09 per GB which is insanely cheap for data. The most expensive country to buy data from is St Helena, where the island and a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean(located west of the South Western coast of Africa charges an average of USD 52.50 for data, which is absolutely ridiculous.
In North America, prices are quite expensive. In the United States, the average price for a GB of data is $8 and it is 50% more expensive in Canada at $12.55 per GB.
Coming back to Africa (not the movie), the surprising thing is that only 8 out of the top 50 cheapest countries in the world are in sub-Saharan Africa. The most expensive country in Africa is Malawi with an average of USD 27.41. Chad is also pretty expensive with an average price of USD 23.33 per GB of data. The cheapest country is Somalia with an average of USD 0.09 per GB of data
Kenya is the 41st cheapest country in the world with an average price of USD 1.05 per GB. The cheapest data is USD 0.27 while the most expensive is USD 10.27per GB. The sample data was taken in February this year, which is quite current.
It is interesting to view such data to realize how varied mobile data prices are. This can be useful when you are travelling so that you can prepare yourself fully and not get shocked by the prices.
