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Hong Kong and Japan head cheapest broadband table - UK and USA in 24th and 30th spots
03 Dec 2010 | 14.43 Europe/London
The UK and the USA are languishing in 24th and 30th place in the latest Point Topic league table on which countries offer the best value broadband, based on a cost in US $ per Mb.
The quarterly league table puts Hong Kong in top spot with a cost per 2 cents per Mb with the UK ranking 24th with a Mb of bandwidth costing 91 cents and the United States in 30th position with a Mb costing $1.3.
The tables can lead to great fluctuations as countries turn on fast, fibre services which offer more Mb for, normally, a fee that does not increase by the same proportion. This was certainly the case for developing markets, such as Saudi Arabia, India, Turkey, Singapore and Kuwait which all saw reductions in the cost per Mb of up to 50%.
Conversely, the UK and USA registered no change in their average price per Mb.
The top twelve countries in the latest chart all provide a Mb for 5 cents or less. They are:
1 Hong Kong
2 Japan
3 Romania
4 Sweden
5 Latvia
6 China
7 Singapore
8 Russia
9 Germany
10 Finland
11 South Korea
12 Belgium
(20 France)
(24 UK)
(30 USA)
Although the figures serve as an overall guide they do come with the obvious caveat that they do not reflect how widespread broadband services are nor how affordable they are to people in each country – hence Romania can be found in 3rd place despite the purchasing power of its citizens being way below other countries in the top 12.
The quarterly league table puts Hong Kong in top spot with a cost per 2 cents per Mb with the UK ranking 24th with a Mb of bandwidth costing 91 cents and the United States in 30th position with a Mb costing $1.3.
The tables can lead to great fluctuations as countries turn on fast, fibre services which offer more Mb for, normally, a fee that does not increase by the same proportion. This was certainly the case for developing markets, such as Saudi Arabia, India, Turkey, Singapore and Kuwait which all saw reductions in the cost per Mb of up to 50%.
Conversely, the UK and USA registered no change in their average price per Mb.
The top twelve countries in the latest chart all provide a Mb for 5 cents or less. They are:
1 Hong Kong
2 Japan
3 Romania
4 Sweden
5 Latvia
6 China
7 Singapore
8 Russia
9 Germany
10 Finland
11 South Korea
12 Belgium
(20 France)
(24 UK)
(30 USA)
Although the figures serve as an overall guide they do come with the obvious caveat that they do not reflect how widespread broadband services are nor how affordable they are to people in each country – hence Romania can be found in 3rd place despite the purchasing power of its citizens being way below other countries in the top 12.