A new analysis from online firm Picodi has found that the Philippines is among the countries with the more expensive Internet access, with 100 Mbps Internet plan costing $40.50 (around P2,200) on average, whereas the 1 Gbps broadband starts at $105.70 (around P5,900).
Picodi checked the price lists of 364 Internet service providers in 85 countries worldwide and created a ranking of countries with the most and the least affordable Internet access.
According to the latest Speedtest.net data, the average Internet speed worldwide is 85 Mbps. However, it turns out that to watch movies in the 4K UHD quality on the biggest streaming platforms, a bandwidth between 15 Mbps and 50 Mbps is sufficient.
Picodi Philippines data showed that the 100 Mbps Internet speed is the most commonly offered bandwidth worldwide, provided in 74 out of 85 analyzed countries. In countries such as China, Spain, France and Singapore, major ISPs no longer offer such ‘slow’ bandwidth.
The 100 Mbps offering costs the most in Norway ($79.4/month on average), Iceland ($62.1/month) and Australia ($61.8/month). On the other hand, the lowest prices for the 100 Mbps bandwidth were noted in Russia ($5.6/month), Ukraine ($6.1) and Romania ($6.4).
Philippines ranked in the upper half of the ranking – the 100 Mbps bandwidth costing $40.5/month as mentioned. It is also the most commonly offered Internet speed by ISPs in the country, alongside the 600 Mbps bandwidth, which costs $54.1 on average.
Similar to its 2019 report, Picodi checked what ISPs offer for $20 per month. From its rankings, 34 countries, including most of Western Europe, Canada, South Africa, Japan, Australia and New Zealand dropped off the list. In those countries, the biggest ISPs do not offer Internet access at this price point.
As for Internet speeds costing just $20, Latvia tops the list with ISPs offering 1.2 Gbps bandwidth. In the Philippines, $20 can get subscribers a 20 Mbps bandwidth speed.
According to Picodi.com data, gigabit Internet got cheaper by an average of 15% in four years (in the Philippines, the cost went down by 37%). The number of countries where ISPs offer such bandwidth increased by half.
In some countries, 1 Gbps Internet bandwidth is a luxury available to few: in the Philippines, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela, the 1 Gbps Internet speed costs $100 or even more.
In the Philippines, the cheapest access to the 1 Gbps bandwidth is available at $105.7 (P5,999) per month.
The cheapest access to the 1 Gbps bandwidth can be found in Ukraine ($8.2/month), Romania ($9.2/month) and Russia ($10.2/month).
