Picodi New Zealand analyst team 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.In this report, we included only offers with unlimited internet access without additional services such as TV or mobile plans.
A full list of countries and ISPs can be found here.
100 Mbps is the most frequently offered internet speed in the world
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 New Zealand data shows that the 100 Mbps internet speed is the most commonly offered bandwidth worldwide, provided in 74 out of 85 analysed countries. In countries such as China, Spain, France and Singapore, major ISPs no longer offer such ‘slow’ bandwidth.
The cosy 100 Mbps 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).
ISPs in New Zealand don’t offer internet plans at the 100 Mbps speed. A much more common bandwidth is 50 Mbps, which costs us $32.5/month on average, followed by 300 Mbps, which costs $52.8/month on average.
Internet up to $20 per month
Similarly to our 2019 report, we checked what internet bandwidth ISPs offer for $20 per month. From our ranking, 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.
At the top of this ranking is Latvia, where ISPs offer 1.2 Gbps bandwidth for less than $20, followed by 14 other countries, where $20 can get you 1 Gbps bandwidth speed. This group includes countries such as Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia, Russia, and Ukraine.
As mentioned above, in New Zealand, none of the biggest ISPs included in our ranking offer internet access at the $20 price point.
How much does 1 Gbps bandwidth cost around the world
According to Picodi.com data, gigabit internet got cheaper by an average of 15% in 4 years. The number of countries where ISPs offer such bandwidth increased by half.
In some countries, such high 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 New Zealand, instead of 1 Gbps internet speed, ISPs more commonly offer 900 Mbps plans, available at $55.5 (NZ$94.0) 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).
Methodology
Our study covers 85 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia–Pacific, and Africa.
We considered the largest internet service providers offering unlimited home internet access via fibre or the most advanced technology available in each country. The prices included in our ranking are valid after the end of the promotional period. We omitted offers with different packages of services, such as internet + TV or internet + access to paid subscription services. We also did not include smaller ISPs offering their services only in a few regions or cities. If router rental was an additional cost, we added it to the internet prices. The differences in prices of the 1 Gbps bandwidth in 2023 and 2019 were calculated in local currencies.
Prices as of November 2023. Currencies were converted at the average exchange rate for October 2023, according to Google Finance.
Sources
- https://www.speedtest.net/global-index
- https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306
- https://help.hbomax.com/pl-en/Answer/Detail/000001257
- https://help.disneyplus.com/article/disneyplus-recommended-speeds
- https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/78358
- https://help.hulu.com/s/article/speed-recommendations
A full list of countries and ISPs can be found here.
