The combination of mobile phones and the internet gave us
mobile data, the single, most convenient way of accessing the internet from
anywhere. As technology advanced, mobile data costs became more and more common
to use.
We are at a point where we don’t rely only on Wi-Fi to
access the internet on our phone – those days are gone. The adoption of mobile
data took a lot less time and places where mobile data is the only source of
internet, there is not much choice. The adoption rate can be realized by the fact
that mobile data in the last five years became available to more than a billion
more people. The expansion of this convenient technology has made lives easier.
This luxury, however, does come with a cost. There is a cost
for mobile data usage, which is deducted from your prepaid or postpaid plan,
whichever plan you might have subscribed to. Still, the mobile data costs are
different in every country according to the availability. There are a few
reasons why there is a difference, but the prominent reasons are probably the
availability of mobile networks and their reliability.
Among the cheapest countries to charge for 1 GB of mobile
data, India tops the chart with only 9c (USD) for 1 GB. It is closely followed
by Israel and then Kyrgyzstan. On the contrary, the most expensive countries to
charge for the same amount of data is Malawi as it charges USD 27.41, closely
followed by Benin and then Chad.
India has a significant factor in market competition, making
it cheaper and more accessible, whereas countries like Malawi lack the
infrastructure and the data bundles offered are much smaller.
The chart below shows the different mobile data rates (in
USD) for 1 GB in different countries.
Infographic by: visualcapitalist.com
