Can you imagine a life without the internet now? We all know the answer to this question. It is astounding how the birth of technology has transformed the lifestyle of humankind forever. It was only in 1983 that the internet came into being. Now 39 years later, we are doing our business online, education is online, and many more. Safe to say our lives have been digitized. The physical world has intermingled with the virtual world, and there is no going back. There are seminars/discussions on the dangers of information overload, social media pressures, and cyberbullying. Actually, we are caught in this net called the internet, and we will only fall deeper into this mesh.
Internet is no more luxury now. It is the need of the masses. Everybody needs it. With all the information about the internet, have you ever wondered what it costs around the world? Or, given a thought about its penetration globally.
Now let us the cost of 1 GB of the internet in different countries:
1 India– Cost here can go up to Rs 7 per GB, but most of the time it is even cheaper than Rs 5 per GB. We have access to the world’s cheapest internet. Does that mean, every Indian has access to the internet? The reply is no. As of January 2022, our internet penetration rate stood at a mere 47% of the total population. This means that more than half the population does not have access to the internet. And here we are talking about life without the internet is beyond imagination.
2 USA– If you talk of cost per GB in the USA, it is equivalent to Rs 257 per GB. It may sound surprising but the internet in the USA is not so cheap. US list released in 2021 ranks 154th among 200+ countries in the mobile data pricing trend list released in 2021. The internet penetration in the USA is about 92%. Much higher than ours.
3 Israel– The cost of the internet here is the second cheapest in the world, the equivalent cost is Rs 8 per GB. It has a penetration rate of 76%.
4 United Kingdom– The cost here is equivalent to Rs 109 per GB, and more than 94% of the population has access to the internet.
5 Germany– The cost here is equivalent to Rs 258 per GB, and 93% of Germans have access to the internet.
6 Australia– The cost here is equivalent to Rs 53 per GB, and the penetration rate here is approx 91%.
7 China-Chinese have internet costs equivalent to Rs 40 per GB, with a 70% penetration rate. You know our savior Google is not there in China. A search engine called ‘Baidu’ is the Chinese version of Google.
8 Pakistan– The average internet cost here is equivalent to Rs 45 per GB. Only 36.5% of Pakistanis have access to the internet.
9 France– The cost here is equivalent to Rs 265 per GB, and 93% of French people have access to the internet.
10 Russia– The cost here is equivalent to Rs 22 per GB, and 85% of Russians can access to the internet. However, the future of the internet in Russia is unpredictable since the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Presently it is nearly isolated online.
11 Japan– The average price of 1 GB of internet for Japanese is Rs 258 per GB, and the penetration rate is about 94%.
12 Switzerland– The cost of the internet here is high, and it is equivalent to Rs 401 per GB, still, the country has the highest penetration rate of 98%.
13 Bangladesh– The cost here is Rs 26 per GB, but a very less number of Bangladeshis have access to the internet, and the penetration rate stands at a mere 31%.
14 Canada– The Canadians are spending the equivalent of Rs 437 for accessing 1 GB. The penetration rate here is 96.4%.
15 New Zealand– Yes expensive, the average cost is equivalent to Rs 534 per GB. Here 94.9% of the population is having access to the internet.
You must have been shocked to see internet prices across the world. Internet is a need for all yet there is a big difference in prices worldwide. Also, cheap internet does not mean that everybody can access it. Take our country, for example, we have the cheapest internet in the world, yet there is less than 50% of penetration. The fact is, there are communities in India unaware of the existence of the internet. The population across urban and semi-urban/small towns are very happy with the cheap internet, and this is happening because of the present central govt’s push towards digital India.
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
25th April 2022