With almost everything going digital nowadays and companies opting for work-from-home setups, the internet plays an important role all over the globe, especially when it comes to communication, access to information, and entertainment.
In the Philippines, internet access remains costly, as stated by the analyst team of Picodi Philippines. Upon examining the price lists of 364 ISPs (internet service providers) in 85 countries worldwide, its study revealed that the Philippines is among the countries with expensive internet access.
“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 Philippines noted.
Its data also showed that the 100 Mbps internet speed is the most commonly offered bandwidth worldwide, provided in 74 out of 85 countries. However, major ISPs no longer offer such “slow” bandwidth in China, Spain, France, and Singapore.
Norway has the most expensive internet access, which costs $79.4/month on average, followed by Iceland ($62.1/month) and Australia ($61.8/month). On the other hand, the lowest prices for the 100 Mbps bandwidth were in Russia ($5.6/month), Ukraine ($6.1), and Romania ($6.4).
The Philippines was placed in the upper half of the ranking, where the 100 Mbps bandwidth costs $40.5/month on average. That’s approximately over ₱2,200.
Picodi Philippines emphasized that it is the most commonly offered internet speed by ISPs in the country, alongside the 600 Mbps bandwidth, which costs $54.1 (approximately almost ₱3,000) on average.
“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,” it added.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, $20 can only get internet users 20 Mbps bandwidth speed.
The data showed gigabit internet got cheaper by an average of 15% in 4 years (in the Philippines – by 37%). Then, 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,” Picodi Philippines stated.
In the Philippines, the cheapest access to the 1 Gbps bandwidth is available at $105.7 (approximately ₱5,999) per month. On the other hand, the cheapest access to the 1 Gbps bandwidth are in Ukraine ($8.2/month), Romania ($9.2/month), and Russia ($10.2/month).
You can view the full study here.
