Bangladesh has one of the cheapest mobile data pricing in the world. However, it seems to have come at the cost of speed.
The country ranked 12th worldwide in terms of data pricing, according to the ‘Worldwide Mobile Data Pricing 2022' report by Cable.co.uk.
As per the latest report by the British organization that reviews internet prices and speeds, on average, 1 GB of mobile data in Bangladesh costs about $0.32 or Tk33.
The five cheapest countries in terms of the average cost of 1GB of mobile data are Israel ($0.04), Italy ($0.12), San Marino ($0.14), Fiji ($0.15) and India ($0.17).
In contrast, neighbouring countries including India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bhutan ranked 5th, 10th, 11th, 13th, and 19th respectively; while Afghanistan ranked 64th and Maldives 145th for providing cheap mobile internet.
Cable.co.uk published the Worldwide Mobile Data Pricing 2022 report after analysing the prices and information of thousands of mobile data plans in 233 countries and regions. The world's most expensive and cheapest mobile data is shown in its report.
The report has been prepared in collaboration with several organizations and institutions, including Open Technology Institute, Google Inc and Princeton University's Planet Lab.
While the country's in 12th position in terms of the cheapest mobile data, Bangladesh ranked 125th among 139 countries in terms of mobile internet speed, according to the Speedtest global index released in September 2022 by Ookla.
According to the Ookla report, countries in South Asia, except Afghanistan, have faster internet services than Bangladesh, with Nepal ranking 115th, Pakistan 116th, Sri Lanka 117th, India 118th and Afghanistan 137th.
Maldives has one of the most expensive data pricing but is also one of the fastest-growing countries in South Asia with internet speeds of 62.32 Mbps. The speed in Bangladesh is 11.71 Mbps, despite providing one of the cheapest rates for mobile data.
Mobile data in Bangladesh costs more despite significantly lagging behind in data speed compared to Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Uganda, and many other African countries such as Angola, Namibia, the Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.
According to Cable.co.uk, countries with little to no fixed-line broadband availability rely heavily on mobile data provision as it is the primary means for the population to get online, making adoption often near-ubiquitous.
Therefore, with a saturated market and many competing providers, often accompanied by a low average wage, data pricing in such countries can be exceptionally cheap when compared globally.
Such is the condition of Bangladesh and India, whose population relies on mobile data to get online, fuelling demand and hence keeping prices low, the report explained.
This means that, in countries where mobile data usage is higher than broadband internet, mobile data costs are also lower.
However, prices are higher in places where mobile data usage is relatively low.
The report further points out that some countries including the US, Canada and Finland have higher data prices due to having higher per capita income and affordability. The exceptions are Yemen, Syria or other island nations.
Meanwhile, in a study conducted by Cable.co.uk in August, Bangladesh ranked 195th in the world in terms of mean download speed, scoring only 3.74 Mbps, falling behind countries such as Iraq, Venezuela, Palestine and Lebanon.
According to the report, after surveying around 106,126 unique IPs in Bangladesh, it was found that it takes on average more than three hours to download a movie of five gigabytes of data in the country.
Neighbouring countries such as Myanmar ranked 173rd with an average download speed of 6.68 Mbps while India ranked 76th with 32.44 Mbps.
“As an IT/ITES exporting business, the current network speed is not sufficient to sustain businesses in the sector, as we have been facing a large volume of call drops due to poor broadband connections,” Omar Shariff, the managing director of an IT company told Dhaka Tribune.
“Even last month, although the quality of our service was assessed higher than the previous month, we lagged behind in addressing call volumes, which was low as calls dropped because of internet speed,” he further stated.
According to the top brass of the IT company, such factors drive global clients to shift to other competing markets such as Vietnam, India and others that do not have such issues.
