broadband-world-map-point-topic

The cheapest place on the planet to get broadband?

Where's the best value for money for 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 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.

Posted byCharles Arthur Tuesday 30 November 201007.17 GMTguardian.co.uk

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Paul Kukubo
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