The US is 120th most expensive country among Western nations for broadband, says the new survey, out this morning.
The average US cost is $67.69 a month, while Canadians pay $10 a month less than their neighbours south of the border. Cable.co.uk found an average price for Canada of $57.66.
“As arguably the world’s most technologically advanced Western nation, [the US’s] broadband is shockingly expensive compared to much of the world,” said Dan Howdle, consumer telecoms analyst at Cable.co.uk, which carried out the survey with international consumer insight consultancy BVA BDRC.
He added: “America’s broadband duopoly simply cannot compete with healthier, multi-provider marketplaces.”
Four of the world’s six cheapest countries were formerly part of the Soviet Union, including the Russian Federation itself, which is the world’s fourth cheapest country, with an average package cost of just $9.77, or around one-seventh the cost of broadband in the US.
The survey found that Mauritania in Africa is the most expensive in the world, with an average package price of $768.16 a month. Next most expensive is Papua New Guinea, at $571.67.
Cable.co.uk analysed 3,303 fixed-line broadband deals in 195 countries for its survey, carried out between 15 August and 20 September 2018.
The researchers found wide variations within regions –in western Europe broadband tended to come within the $30-$40 range. Italy is the cheapest, at $29.98, Germany’s average is $36.68 and the average UK package is $39.58 – meaning Britons pay around $10 a month more for their broadband than Italians.
“The countries with slow, patchy broadband infrastructure that supplies only a fraction of the population tend to be the most expensive,” noted Howdle. “Likewise, those with exceptional, often full-fibre (FTTH) infrastructure supplying the majority of the population tend to be the cheapest, if not in absolute terms, certainly on a cost-per-megabit basis.”
Despite the wide variations from country to country, the average broadband price worldwide has fallen just 1.64% since the end of 2017, said Cable.co.uk, which is an independent consumer price research company based in the UK. The full survey includes an Excel spreadsheet showing average, cheapest and most expensive packages in each of the countries surveyed, and gives price per month and cost per megabit per month.
