Telecommunications

Broadband bang per buck: How your country rates on speed versus cost

Broadband bang per buck: How your country rates on speed versus cost
See how your country stacks up in terms of broadband speed and cost
See how your country stacks up in terms of broadband speed and cost
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The latest data available from British broadband, TV and phone comparison site Cable.co.uk paints an interesting picture of which countries are doing it right, and those where short term gain for the telcos has prevailed to the detriment of the country and its citizens.
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The latest data available from British broadband, TV and phone comparison site Cable.co.uk paints an interesting picture of which countries are doing it right, and those where short term gain for the telcos has prevailed to the detriment of the country and its citizens.
See how your country stacks up in terms of broadband speed and cost
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See how your country stacks up in terms of broadband speed and cost

Fast affordable broadband is one of the essentials of modern life. Like an effective education system, if a country does not ensure its citizens have universal access, the future will invariably be compromised for all concerned. Hence the latest comparative country data from Cable.co.uk paints an interesting picture of which countries are doing it right, and those where short term gain for the telcos has prevailed.

A report from the Commission on Science and Technology for Development of the United Nations Economic and Social Council claimed broadband offered far more significant socioeconomic impacts than earlier technological leaps such as telephony and narrowband or low-speed datacommunications, and that "the digital divide is increasinglybecoming a knowledge divide."

The report states "the scope of information and of technical andsocioeconomic know-how of educational, scientific, health and political resources availableto one segment of society (via broadband) is virtually infinite, while the remainder of the population (without broadband) remains excluded from the information society."

On a macro level, broadband's positive economic benefits cannot be ignored. A World Bank study in 2009 found that for each 10 percent increase in broadband penetration, there was a 1.38 percent increase in gross domestic product (GDP), for both developing and developed countries.

The latest data available from British broadband, TV and phone comparison site Cable.co.uk paints an interesting picture of which countries are doing it right, and those where short term gain for the telcos has prevailed to the detriment of the country and its citizens.
The latest data available from British broadband, TV and phone comparison site Cable.co.uk paints an interesting picture of which countries are doing it right, and those where short term gain for the telcos has prevailed to the detriment of the country and its citizens.

Hence the latest data available from British broadband, TV and phone comparison site Cable.co.uk should be interesting food for thought for governments, businesses, organizations and individuals.

Broadband Speed – country by country

The data below was gathered over the year to May 10, 2017 and was compiled by Cable.co.uk from more than 63 million broadband speed tests conducted by M-Lab, a partnership between New America's Open Technology Institute, Google Open Source Research, Princeton University's PlanetLab, and other supporting partners.

Singapore's feat in topping this list isn't surprising, but the size of its lead over every other country should be emphasized. Singapore's average broadband speed is double that of eighth-placed Belgium, and near triple that of 21st-placed United States.

Given the number of countries on the list, Singapore's 37 percent speed margin over second-placed Sweden is an outlier, and goes some way to explaining why start-up companies across Asia are clamoring to build their headquarters there.

At the opposite end of the scale, some developed countries should be downright ashamed of their efforts, and the farcical incompetence of Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) must be mentioned.

The largest infrastructure project in Australia's history, NBN at one stage aimed to deliver 1 Gbit/s and although it still isn't complete, Australia's 7.7 Mbps puts it in 55th place, well behind Kenya, Thailand, Bulgaria and Moldova and narrowly ahead of Mexico, Greece and Macedonia. Singapore's average download speed is sevenfold that of Australia, where the Government's stated initiative was to become a global leader in this very metric.

Posn.CountryMean Download Speed (Mbps)
1 Singapore 55.13
2 Sweden 40.16
3 Taiwan 34.40
4 Denmark 33.54
5 Netherlands 33.52
6 Latvia 30.36
7 Norway 29.13
8 Belgium 27.37
9 Hong Kong 27.16
10 Switzerland 26.93
11 Lithuania 25.12
12 Japan 24.47
13 Estonia 24.11
14 Jersey 23.30
15 Hungary 23.16
16 South Korea 22.90
17 Portugal 21.72
18 Romania 21.33
19 Finland 20.90
20 Macau 20.52
21 United States 20.00
22 Spain 19.60
23 Slovakia 18.85
24 Germany 18.80
25 Slovenia 18.37
26 Canada 18.03
27 Bulgaria 17.54
28 Czech Republic 17.31
29 Thailand 16.85
30 New Zealand 16.60
31 United Kingdom 16.51
32 Monaco 16.13
33 Luxembourg 15.52
34 Austria 15.26
35 Poland 14.88
36 Ireland 13.92
37 France 13.43
38 Gibraltar 13.18
39 Cayman Islands 13.15
40 Croatia 12.57
41 Serbia 12.25
42 Andorra 12.07
43 Russian Federation 11.59
44 Liechtenstein 11.40
45 Moldova 10.75
46 Italy 10.71
47 Iceland 10.55
48 Malta 10.17
49 Bahamas 10.06
50 Isle of Man 9.01
51 Kenya 8.83
52 Guernsey 8.76
53 Cyprus 8.24
54 Ukraine 8.18
55 Australia 7.70
56 Mexico 7.59
57 Greece 7.56
58 Faroe Islands 7.48
59 Macedonia 7.34
60 Israel 7.20
61 Bosnia and Herzegovina 7.00
62 Turks and Caicos Islands 6.74
63 Malaysia 6.69
64 Belarus 6.68
65 Barbados 6.62
66 Jamaica 6.60
67 Puerto Rico 6.44
68 Dominican Republic 6.22
69 Bermuda 5.94
70 Georgia 5.86
71 Montenegro 5.85
72 Seychelles 5.84
73 Virgin Islands (British) 5.49
74 Vietnam 5.46
75 Indonesia 5.19
76 Belize 5.14
77 Virgin Islands (U.S.) 5.14
78 Albania 4.67
79 Morocco 4.38
80 South Africa 4.36
81 United Arab Emirates 4.17
82 Kazakhstan 4.00
83 Turkey 3.96
84 Qatar 3.89
85 Sri Lanka 3.83
86 Brunei Darussalam 3.83
87 Philippines 3.69
88 Tunisia 3.50
89 Madagascar 3.49
90 Honduras 3.47
91 Guatemala 3.31
92 Armenia 3.29
93 Trinidad and Tobago 3.28
94 Greenland 3.15
95 Nigeria 3.15
96 Bahrain 3.13
97 Aruba 3.12
98 Cambodia 3.10
99 Saudi Arabia 3.06
100 Jordan 2.98
101 Dominica 2.68
102 Azerbaijan 2.67
103 Haiti 2.62
104 Oman 2.61
105 Zimbabwe 2.49
106 Zambia 2.45
107 El Salvador 2.34
108 Panama 2.30
109 Martinique 2.30
110 Ghana 2.30
111 New Caledonia 2.23
112 Guam 2.22
113 Kuwait 2.21
114 Colombia 2.12
115 Liberia 2.12
116 Uganda 2.12
117 Rwanda 2.11
118 Myanmar 2.09
119 India 2.06
120 Cape Verde 2.00
121 Curaçao 1.99
122 Saint Lucia 1.98
123 Palestinian Territory 1.96
124 Laos 1.94
125 Antigua and Barbuda 1.86
126 Namibia 1.81
127 Saint Kitts and Nevis 1.72
128 Chile 1.67
129 Guadeloupe 1.63
130 Maldives 1.62
131 Iraq 1.60
132 Mongolia 1.60
133 Iran 1.56
134 China 1.55
135 Mauritania 1.54
136 Costa Rica 1.53
137 Mauritius 1.53
138 Brazil 1.49
139 Tanzania 1.49
140 Mozambique 1.45
141 Peru 1.41
142 Turkmenistan 1.40
143 Sint Maarten (Dutch) 1.39
144 Bangladesh 1.34
145 French Guiana 1.34
146 French Polynesia 1.34
147 Ethiopia 1.34
148 Uruguay 1.31
149 Ecuador 1.28
150 Afghanistan 1.27
151 Djibouti 1.25
152 Suriname 1.25
153 Togo 1.24
154 Fiji 1.24
155 Cote D'Ivoire 1.22
156 Egypt 1.22
157 Papua New Guinea 1.19
158 Senegal 1.17
159 Argentina 1.15
160 Nicaragua 1.14
161 Algeria 1.11
162 Sudan 1.10
163 Lebanon 1.07
164 Botswana 1.07
165 Angola 1.05
166 Kyrgyzstan 0.98
167 Cameroon 0.97
168 Reunion 0.97
169 Nepal 0.97
170 Malawi 0.92
171 Pakistan 0.91
172 Bolivia 0.91
173 Guyana 0.89
174 Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 0.89
175 Guinea 0.84
176 Mali 0.84
177 Tajikistan 0.83
178 Uzbekistan 0.76
179 Paraguay 0.75
180 Benin 0.73
181 Congo 0.72
182 Venezuela 0.70
183 Syrian Arab Republic 0.68
184 Vanuatu 0.63
185 Somalia 0.62
186 Congo 0.55
187 Burkina Faso 0.49
188 Gabon 0.41
189 Yemen 0.34

Broadband Cost - country by country

The data below was gathered during the period August 11, 2017 to October 12, 2017 from 3,351 individual broadband packages by the UK's largest independent research consultancy, BDRC Continental, and subsequently analyzed by Cable.co.uk.

In light of overwhelming evidence that affordable broadband connectivity is crucial to a country's competitiveness, regardless of its state of technological development as a nation, you'd think that the governments of developed countries might be paying attention and preventing telcos from price-gouging, but sadly not.

The average price of broadband connectivity in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States seems to have been based on the time-honored "whatever the market can afford."

Conversely, six of the 10 cheapest countries in the world for broadband connectivity can be found in the former USSR, including Russia itself. Affordable broadband is one of the cheapest economy superchargers available.

Posn. Country Average Monthly Broadband Cost (USD)
1 Iran $5.37
2 Ukraine $5.45
3 Russian Federation $10.06
4 Moldova $10.77
5 Syria $12.15
6 Egypt $12.40
7 Belarus $12.77
8 Romania $13.71
9 Kazakhstan $13.73
10 Georgia $16.80
11 Serbia $18.92
12 Poland $19.39
13 Nepal $19.02
14 Tajikistan $19.30
15 Tunisia $19.53
16 Latvia $19.86
17 Sri Lanka $20.16
18 Israel $20.66
19 Saint-Martin (France) $20.72
20 Slovakia $22.30
21 Mongolia $22.12
22 Yemen $22.67
23 Hungary $24.84
24 Uzbekistan $25.06
25 Croatia $25.66
26 Turkey $25.50
27 Thailand $26.80
28 Mexico $27.53
29 Estonia $27.67
30 Taiwan $27.61
31 Bulgaria $28.81
32 Italy $29.27
33 Czech Republic $29.76
34 South Korea $29.62
35 Réunion $30.47
36 Slovenia $31.21
37 Montenegro $32.32
38 Argentina $32.02
39 Algeria $32.34
40 Turkmenistan $32.23
41 China $32.41
42 Albania $33.23
43 Dominican Republic $33.21
44 Germany $34.53
45 Brazil $35.08
46 Macedonia $35.80
47 Denmark $36.39
48 France $36.83
49 Mauritius $36.40
50 Bosnia and Herzegovina $37.22
51 Palestine, State of $37.32
52 Saint Barthélemy $37.82
53 India $37.35
54 Isle of Man $37.85
55 Azerbaijan $38.10
56 Bangladesh $38.15
57 Singapore $39.06
58 Åland Islands $39.54
59 Morocco $39.61
60 San Marino $40.34
61 French Guiana $40.93
62 Macau $40.45
63 United Kingdom $40.94
64 Pakistan $40.86
65 Martinique $41.67
66 Uruguay $41.08
67 Spain $42.16
68 Finland $42.26
69 Monaco $42.65
70 Venezuela $43.30
71 St. Pierre and Miquelon $44.97
72 Guatemala $44.40
73 Malaysia $44.88
74 Mayotte $46.24
75 Peru $45.62
76 Armenia $46.87
77 The Netherlands $48.34
78 Cyprus $48.53
79 Chile $48.57
80 Gibraltar $50.22
81 Austria $50.77
82 Japan $51.02
83 Belgium $51.90
84 Colombia $51.65
85 Portugal $53.23
86 Guernsey $52.95
87 Cambodia $52.89
88 Iraq $53.56
89 Kuwait $53.41
90 Philippines $53.50
91 Greece $55.50
92 Canada $55.14
93 Paraguay $55.12
94 Lebanon $55.39
95 Sweden $57.78
96 Nicaragua $55.78
97 South Africa $55.71
98 Jersey $56.93
99 Grenada $57.19
100 Fiji $58.00
101 Falkland Islands $58.67
102 Côte d'Ivoire $60.54
103 Libya $59.84
104 Australia $60.37
105 Dominica $62.17
106 Ecuador $62.29
107 Vietnam $62.45
108 New Zealand $64.14
109 Guadeloupe $65.02
110 Mauritania $64.09
111 Jamaica $64.52
112 El Salvador $65.11
113 Gambia $65.86
114 United States $66.17
115 Ethiopia $67.15
116 Mozambique $68.08
117 Puerto Rico $68.37
118 Afghanistan $68.44
119 Honduras $68.62
120 Cameroon $70.08
121 Lithuania $70.52
122 Swaziland $69.67
123 Costa Rica $70.00
124 Ireland $72.27
125 Saint Lucia $71.08
126 Hong Kong $71.21
127 Curaçao $71.20
128 Iceland $72.94
129 Trinidad and Tobago $72.27
130 Sint Maarten $72.88
131 Luxembourg $76.91
132 Indonesia $76.00
133 Myanmar $75.96
134 Montserrat $76.16
135 Bahamas $77.08
136 Botswana $78.62
137 Jordan $78.42
138 Saint Kitts and Nevis $78.49
139 Samoa $79.24
140 Benin $81.05
141 Nigeria $80.36
142 New Caledonia $81.95
143 Switzerland $82.29
144 Bolivia $81.78
145 Norway $83.39
146 Saint Helena $84.07
147 Greenland $84.64
148 Saudi Arabia $84.03
149 Guam $85.00
150 Kenya $85.99
151 Maldives $86.02
152 Anguilla $86.70
153 Faroe Islands $89.55
154 Virgin Islands (U.S.) $88.01
155 Liechtenstein $89.75
156 Belize $88.94
157 French Polynesia $93.04
158 Sudan $95.95
159 Djibouti $96.85
160 Marshall Islands $97.45
161 Malta $99.36
162 Seychelles $98.57
163 Bahrain $104.97
164 Barbados $105.23
165 Lesotho $108.81
166 Gabon $111.48
167 Caribbean Netherlands $110.12
168 Kyrgyzstan $111.97
169 Guyana $113.63
170 Panama $112.77
171 Sierra Leone $113.78
172 Tanzania $113.99
173 Comoros $116.93
174 Somalia $117.00
175 Turks and Caicos Islands $119.21
176 Niger $121.82
177 Micronesia $123.63
178 American Samoa $122.59
179 Bermuda $126.80
180 Angola $139.22
181 Virgin Islands (British) $146.05
182 Oman $147.83
183 Qatar $149.42
184 Antigua and Barbuda $153.78
185 Vanuatu $154.07
186 United Arab Emirates $155.18
187 Mali $166.14
188 Zimbabwe $170.00
189 Cook Islands $174.01
190 Cayman Islands $175.27
191 Haiti $224.19
192 Laos $231.67
193 Brunei Darussalam $269.58
194 Namibia $435.96
195 Papua New Guinea $597.20
196 Burkina Faso $977.15

Broadband bang-per-buck - country by country

The data below was calculated by dividing the speed data by the cost data to achieve a speed/cost ratio for each country, and it offers a clear indication of which governments have recognized the benefits of embracing the digital age.

Posn. Country Speed/Cost Ratio
1 Romania 1.56
2 Latvia 1.53
3 Ukraine 1.50
4 Singapore 1.41
5 Netherlands 1.25
6 Taiwan 1.25
7 Russian Federation 1.15
8 Moldova 1.00
9 Hungary 0.93
10 Denmark 0.92
11 Estonia 0.87
12 Slovakia 0.85
13 South Korea 0.77
14 Poland 0.77
15 Sweden 0.70
16 Serbia 0.65
17 Thailand 0.63
18 Bulgaria 0.61
19 Slovenia 0.59
20 Czech Republic 0.58
21 Germany 0.54
22 Belgium 0.53
23 Belarus 0.52
24 Macau 0.51
25 Finland 0.49
26 Croatia 0.49
27 Japan 0.48
28 Spain 0.46
29 Jersey 0.41
30 Portugal 0.41
31 United Kingdom 0.40
32 Hong Kong 0.38
33 Monaco 0.38
34 Italy 0.37
35 France 0.36
36 Lithuania 0.36
37 Norway 0.35
38 Georgia 0.35
39 Israel 0.35
40 Switzerland 0.33
41 Canada 0.33
42 United States 0.30
43 Austria 0.30
44 Kazakhstan 0.29
45 Iran 0.29
46 Mexico 0.28
47 Gibraltar 0.26
48 New Zealand 0.26
49 Isle of Man 0.24
50 Macedonia 0.21
51 Luxembourg 0.20
52 Ireland 0.19
53 Sri Lanka 0.19
54 Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.19
55 Dominican Republic 0.19
56 Montenegro 0.18
57 Tunisia 0.18
58 Cyprus 0.17
59 Guernsey 0.17
60 Turkey 0.16
61 Malaysia 0.15
62 Iceland 0.14
63 Albania 0.14
64 Greece 0.14
65 Bahamas 0.13
66 Australia 0.13
67 Liechtenstein 0.13
68 Morocco 0.11
69 Kenya 0.10
70 Malta 0.10
71 Jamaica 0.10
72 Egypt 0.10
73 Puerto Rico 0.09
74 Vietnam 0.09
75 Faroe Islands 0.08
76 South Africa 0.08
77 Cayman Islands 0.08
78 Guatemala 0.07
79 Mongolia 0.07
80 Armenia 0.07
81 Azerbaijan 0.07
82 Philippines 0.07
83 Indonesia 0.07
84 Barbados 0.06
85 Seychelles 0.06
86 Cambodia 0.06
87 Virgin Islands, U.S. 0.06
88 Belize 0.06
89 Turks and Caicos Islands 0.06
90 Syria 0.06
91 Martinique 0.06
92 India 0.06
93 Palestine 0.05
94 Nepal 0.05
95 Honduras 0.05
96 China 0.05
97 Bermuda 0.05
98 Trinidad and Tobago 0.05
99 Turkmenistan 0.04
100 Dominica 0.04
101 Tajikistan 0.04
102 Brazil 0.04
103 Mauritius 0.04
104 Kuwait 0.04
105 Colombia 0.04
106 Nigeria 0.04
107 Jordan 0.04
108 Virgin Islands, British 0.04
109 Greenland 0.04
110 Saudi Arabia 0.04
111 El Salvador 0.04
112 Argentina 0.04
113 Bangladesh 0.04
114 Chile 0.03
115 Algeria 0.03
116 French Guiana 0.03
117 Uruguay 0.03
118 Reunion 0.03
119 Peru 0.03
120 Uzbekistan 0.03
121 Iraq 0.03
122 Bahrain 0.03
123 Curaçao 0.03
124 Saint Lucia 0.03
125 Myanmar 0.03
126 New Caledonia 0.03
127 United Arab Emirates 0.03
128 Guam 0.03
129 Qatar 0.03
130 Guadeloupe 0.03
131 Mauritania 0.02
132 Pakistan 0.02
133 Saint Kitts and Nevis 0.02
134 Costa Rica 0.02
135 Fiji 0.02
136 Mozambique 0.02
137 Ecuador 0.02
138 Nicaragua 0.02
139 Panama 0.02
140 Cote D'Ivoire 0.02
141 Ethiopia 0.02
142 Lebanon 0.02
143 Maldives 0.02
144 Afghanistan 0.02
145 Cape Verde 0.02
146 Suriname 0.02
147 Oman 0.02
148 Venezuela 0.02
149 Yemen 0.01
150 Libya 0.01
151 Zimbabwe 0.01
152 French Polynesia 0.01
153 Brunei Darussalam 0.01
154 Cameroon 0.01
155 Botswana 0.01
156 Paraguay 0.01
157 Tanzania 0.01
158 Djibouti 0.01
159 Antigua and Barbuda 0.01
160 Haiti 0.01
161 Sudan 0.01
162 Bolivia 0.01
163 Benin 0.01
164 Kyrgyzstan 0.01
165 Laos 0.01
166 Guyana 0.01
167 Angola 0.01
168 Somalia 0.01
169 Mali 0.01
170 Namibia 0.00
171 Vanuatu 0.00
172 Gabon 0.00
173 Papua New Guinea 0.00
174 Burkina Faso 0.00

Note that the data sets which make up the above table don't match up perfectly and we have only included countries where both sets of data are available.

Source: Cable.co.uk

7 comments
7 comments
michaelblock
Australia's broadband 'policy' should be a textbook example of how not to develop and implement policy. Political lies, sabotaging a national fibre optic plan for short-term political capital, it's become a national disaster
Daishi
There are a lot of things to consider that are left out of the data set. The bang/buck of groceries and housing is far worse in much of the US than the rest of the world. Why? Because of differences in income by country which are not accounted for in the data. You would have to calculate bang/buck as a percentage of average household income to get a fair comparison for what things like housing, food, and broadband cost and I've never seen one of these comparisons that bothers doing that. Where are all the articles complaining about how much cheaper housing is in the middle of africa in USD compared to SF? Nobody would take an attempted apples to apples comparison of such a thing seriously but here we are. Another major factor is population density by country. The US is 179th, Australia is 235th. There are 3.3 people per square km in australia and...7,148 in singapore. Again if this were any other topic being debated it would be considered a significant oversight for such a difference to be overlooked when talking about the results. The way the data is presented is better at fostering angry mobs than meaningful dialogue on the subject. With that said I work in the industry and have made and hope to make a lot of changes to do my part to help.
Cody Blank
And let's make it even worse in the US with destroying net neutrality!
ljaques
I'm in southern Oregon and Centurylink gives me 5mbps DSL and basic phone services for just over $100/mo. I'm right down there in speed with Albania and Morocco, with prices more like Seychelles and Bahrain. I'm sure glad they broke up Ma Bell. I sure miss those $8/mo prices.
Derek Howe
Here is Sioux Falls, South Dakota I'm getting 33mbps down and 8mbps up. Not bad, not great. It costs me (internet only) $57 per month.
aksdad
Ditto what Daishi said. Not a useful comparison at all. Funny how the U.S. remains the #1 economy in the world despite not having the cheapest average broadband rate or the fastest average access and is handicapped by a rather large area and low population density. Like the frequent studies of "income inequality" it tells us essentially nothing meaningful. If you want a really helpful understanding of economic differences between countries, have a look at Freedom House's interactive annual Freedom in the World report. That tells you all you need to know about what really improves people's lives.
notarichman
although 20 miles away exist fiberoptic lines; i only have access to satellite internet around the 1 mbps speed. putting my service somewhere near 150 in ranking. they refuse to install anything faster. Was my speed included in the results? i doubt it.