Living in an era when mobile data is vital to people’s everyday life, residents in some African countries still consider it a luxury to get mobile data, the price of which is out of reach for those living on an average salary.
The Alliance for Affordable Internet, a global coalition working towards affordable broadband with Google being one of its sponsors, recently released the data about mobile data prices in 99 low- and middle-income countries.
The rates included in this report refer specifically to the price of 1GB of broadband data over a 30-day period based on the cheapest plans of the largest mobile network operator in each country.
Sky-high Price in Caribbean Countries
The chart below shows the price for 1GB data in USD in all 99 countries surveyed. Mobile data can be extremely expensive in a few countries around the Caribbean Sea. Please find the precise price for the six “high-cost Internet countries” in the second chart.
Asia Africa Color by continent High-cost Internet countries Reset
Data in African Countries Most Unaffordable
A high price does not mean that people cannot afford mobile data. In Trinidad and Tobago, one gigabyte of mobile data costs almost US$50, which is about 3.65 percent of the country’s gross national income per capita. In contrast, although the same amount of data costs only about US$10 in DR Congo, that is more than one quarter of the country’s average income.
More Population are Enjoying Low-cost Data
For low- and middle-income countries with the largest populations, mobile data price has become more affordable in recent years.
Price of 1GB mobile data as % of average income from 2015 to 2019