What Europeans pay for broadband

Price comparison for consumer broadband in Europe (average monthly price per 1Mbps, from The Telegraph/MoneySupermarket):

1. Sweden GBP 0.32 (EUR 0.48)
2. France GBP 0.83 (EUR 1.23)
3. Finland GBP 1.41
4. Italy GBP 1.71
5. Norway GBP 2.05
6. Holland GBP 2.19
7. Denmark GBP 2.50 (EUR 3.7)
8. Iceland GBP 2.54
9. Germany GBP 2.64 (EUR 3.9)
10. Austria GBP 3.04
11. Belgium GBP 3.40
12. UK GBP 5.60 (EUR 8.3)
13. Portugal GBP 5.84
14. Spain GBP 6.33
15. Poland GBP 6.60
16. Ireland GBP 7.02
17. Luxembourg GBP 9.39
18. Switzerland GBP 11.03 (EUR 16.8)
19. Czech Republic GBP 12.25
20. Greece GBP 16.86
21. Hungary GBP 24.48
22. Slovakia GBP 25.48 (EUR 37.8)
23. Turkey GBP 58.82 (EUR 87.3)

Spectacular differences. Some of the them can be explained by technical reasons (fiber optic vs copper wires etc), some by the overall living costs in a given country. Most of the high prices however are tied to lack of  competition and of innovation in a specific market.

UPDATE July 3 - Cedric at Nomadcom adds some broadly equivalent figures from Asian countries:

1. South Korea KRW 300 (EUR 0.25)
   
2. Japan JPY 400 (EUR 0.51)
   
3. China CNY 175 (EUR 17)
4. Singapore SGD 43 (EUR 21)
   
5. Thailand (BKK) THB 952 (EUR 22.27)
6. Sri Lanka LKR 4500 (EUR 30)
7. Philippines PHP 1995 (EUR 32)
   
8. Australia AUD 53 (EUR 33.25)
9. Pakistan PKR  4800 (EUR  59)
   
10. Malaysia MYR 300 (EUR 65)
    
11. India INR 3600 (EUR 65)
12. Myanmar USD 260 (EUR 192)
13. Fiji FJD 560 (EUR 260)
14. Indonesia USD 2440 (EUR 1800)

Comments

[Isaiah]

Bruno, I don't know where 'The Telegraph Money/Supermarket' got their statistics about Swiss broadband costs, but by my calculations I pay about 2.65GBP per 1Mbps, not the 11GBP they claim. That would move Switzerland into the middle of the German speaking surfing world. But none of that matters now that the iPhone has landed.
Isaiah

[2Bad]

Hello

I live in Switzerland too and I pay 5 GBP / Mbps for my connection. 11 is definitely too much and I don't know where you had that info.

2Bad

[Stefano Quintarelli]

In Italy the cheapest is 6,75GBP/mo per Mbps of nominal peak throughput with a mere 5Kbps minimum guarantee

4 times as much as what is presented in the article, a price that puts us in the back of the pack, but after the other comments I read, I doubt of the prices shown.

[BrunoG]

Thank you for your comments. It's not clear to me what methodology MoneySupermarket used to create their ranking, but clearly there is not a single price for broadband in a country, so what each of you individually pay is not necessarily in contradiction with an average, a median, or any other criteria they may have adopted. What I found interesting in the ranking, and that's why I posted it and added the data about Asia (which were gathered by an individual blogger) is not the exact value of the MBPS in each country: it's the amazing range. Even if we consider the prices mentioned by Isaiah and 2bad and the Swiss pay a price that's a quarter or a half of what's in the published ranking, that still puts Switzerland at 6 times the Swedish price, and 12 times the Korean price. So what matters here really is not the exact monetary value, but the spread, which doesn't seem to have a specific correlation with affluence or other country wealth measures -- and therefore is likely correlated to tech and market openness/competitiveness differences.

[Mustafa]

Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL)has recently (on July 07, 2007) reduced the cost for Internet Bandwidth - now down to EUR 2.36 with a STM-1 subscribtion

A few blogs

http://blog.broadbandpakistan.com/2007/07/09/ptcls-announcement-on-internet-bandwidth-price-reductions.aspx

http://pakng.wordpress.com/2007/07/07/its-the-network-stupid/

PTCL
http://ptcl.com.pk/tariff/circuit/full_circuit_premium_internet.html

[m]

Living in Switzerland, I pay about CHF 90/month for my Cablecom 'Hispeed' 10'000 connection, that's Internet by cable TV (10 Mbit/s downstream, 1 Mbit/s upstream) – CHF 65 is for the 'Hispeed' connection, about CHF 25 for the cable TV itself. Summing up, I pay 9 CHF/Mbit or around 3,7 GBP … too much in my opinion, especially in comparison with other countries and based on the fact that my 'Hispeed' connection is asynchronous.

[m]

So what matters here really is not the exact monetary value, but the spread, which doesn't seem to have a specific correlation with affluence or other country wealth measures -- and therefore is likely correlated to tech and market openness/competitiveness differences.

Exactly! Switzerland is a perfect example for almost no competition in the broadband market (just two relevant providers, Cablecom and Swisscom) with the result that broadband in Switzerland is slow, expensive and asynchronous … :(

[Hans]

If you live outside densely populated areas (cities, agglos) what you get in Switzerland is still 600 kbps downstream / 100 upstream costing approx 50 CHF /month (equivalent to approx. 22 GBP), so that's double the listed amout. Monopolist Swisscom claims 98 % spread but at what quality / speed?

[Shaun Edwardes]

Does anyone have the same figures for monile data costs?

[shaun edwardes]

Forgive the typo, the question is regarding "mobile data costs". Thanks. S

[Satellite Internet Access]

Good article and comments. Satellite internet access is the future of broadband internet technology.
http://www.1-satellite-tv-facts.com/Satellite-Internet.html

[Lawrence]

Shame! shame! shame!
The USA is light years behind the Europeans insofar as broadband internet. Not only do Americans pay more, but the connection speed is SLOWER! The USA needs to step up its game regarding broadband internet. More can be found at
http://www.high-speed-internet-access.net/