[kictanet] Global broadband prices?

[Paul Kukubo]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/nov/30/broadband-world-map-point-topic

The cheapest place on the planet to get broadband?

Where's the best value for money for
broadband<http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/broadband>?
South Korea? The UK? No - it turns out to be Hong Kong, according to a study
by the broadband consultancy Point Topic.

The data, which is collected on a quarterly basis by the company, showcases
the best deals on offer to consumers around the world.

"Consumers in different countries are faced with very different broadband
tariffs, dependent on geography, market and network maturity, local
competition and various levels and sources of subsidy," said Fiona Vanier,
senior analyst at Point Topic.

The map<http://www.openheatmap.com/view.html?map=ProprietorVideoedBlockbuster>
above
shows an adjusted measure of the cost - specifically, the logarithm of the
cost, subtracted from the largest value of cost. This means that larger
numbers actually match to lower, rather than higher prices: in Hong Kong the
provider, HKBN, offers fibre to the home, with a 1Gbps connection, which
costs the equivalent of $0.028 per megabit.

The next in the top ten are Japan, Romania, Sweden, Latvia, China,
Singapore, Russia, Germany and Finland. The UK finally appears at No.24,
ahead of the US which is at No.30.

In the standalone tariffs that Point Topic tracks, bandwidth can vary from
150kbps (which arguably isn't broadband, though it tends to be the
continuous state of the connection rather than the speed that most focus on)
up to 1Gbps.

Many come with data limits, email addresses or static IPs, and that is
before accounting for "special offers".

To help comparison, Point Topic analysed the amount a consumer pays for a
megabit of bandwidth, and analysed the cost over a year.

"Nine of the ten best value tariffs are either pure fibre or hybrid
offerings where fibre is a significant part of the local loop. The exception
is Germany where Unity Media offer a cable service that is very
competitive," said Vanier. "Prices are stabilising in many markets around
the world and overall in the last quarter there was an average increase
globally. However there are plenty of countries that are still rolling out
new networks and ISPs that are announcing new tariffs. Even in relatively
mature markets, like Singapore or Italy, there is room for improvement."

Faster downstream speeds usually mean a lower price per megabit but the
bandwidth has to be used for those savings to be achieved.

"Bandwidth will continue to increase as fibre edges closer to the consumer.
Higher speeds generally mean better value for the consumer. All that remains
is to work out how best to use it," concluded Vanier.
 [image: Charles Arthur]
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/charlesarthur>Posted
byCharles Arthur <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/charlesarthur> Tuesday
30 November 201007.17 GMTguardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>

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Paul Kukubo
Chief Executive Officer, Kenya ICT Board
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