Study: low-quality internet services are the least available worldwide

Moreover, expensive services are often provided far from the highest standards of the telecom market. Here are a couple of studies and trends in this area.

Photo: Mika Baumeister.  Source: Unsplash.com
Photo: Mika Baumeister. Source: Unsplash.com

How did it happen

The authors of the report “Digital Quality of Life Index”, which they wrote about in the blog, came to disappointing conclusions. developer company VPN service and cybersecurity tools Surfshark. The research underlying this report looked at providers’ offerings in eighty-five countries with a total population of 81% of the world’s population.

The general conclusion is that in 75% of countries it is much more difficult to earn money to pay for the services of Internet providers than in the rest. In Africa for the most affordable package you need to work about eleven hours a month. In particular, in Nigeria – up to thirty-four hours. Plus, in this region, the least accessible Internet turns out to be the “slowest” one.

On the other hand, in Israel this time is only twenty-three minutes. In the United States, fifty-two, and in Canada, seven minutes. The world average is in the region of forty-eight minutes, although this does not mean much, since the usual filling of service packages can differ significantly depending on the country and region.

Breakdown by region showsthat the most accessible Internet is used by residents Oceania… It is followed by Asia and Europe. Not only Africa is lagging behind, but also America, so there is no need to talk about any connection with the indicators of gross domestic product by country. The differences are mainly due to government regulation, the level of competition in the telecom market and the cost of infrastructure development.

Photo: Denise Jans.  Source: Unsplash.com
Photo: Denise Jans. Source: Unsplash.com

Even if the influence of these factors on the availability of Internet services seems obvious, one should not forget that they are all interconnected by themselves, therefore, the results of economically prosperous and technologically developed countries sometimes turn out to be incomparable.

What else affects the situation

A little more detail sorted out the topic in the report “Cost of Connectivity”. It is based on data on 760 service packages in twenty-eight countries in Asia, Europe and North America. The main emphasis was placed on American providers and discovered in the United States an “availability crisis”.

Analysts’ data for the period 2012-2014 only confirmed the current state of affairs – the clients of American Internet providers really constantly overpay for communication with fairly average characteristics. The average monthly cost of service in the United States is higher than in other countries studied in the study. Moreover, this trend can be seen in all types of connection from optics to DSL – for example, in Europe, both options will cost less.

Image: Compare Fiber.  Source: Unsplash.com
Image: Compare Fiber. Source: Unsplash.com

The authors of “Cost of Connectivity” also noted the fact that US residents often find themselves in an endless maze of conditions, additional services and Internet connection premiums. There are practically no simple and understandable tariffs – you either overpay for equipment rental up to 75% of the total Internet costs, or you risk paying an additional fine for traffic overruns, and sometimes a decent amount for early termination of the contract.

Plus, experts emphasize the low level of competition in the country’s telecom market and note that providers in the United States are in no hurry to establish communication not only with customers, but also with government agencies and analytical agencies. In such circumstances, there is really no need to talk about high availability. However, new projects to bring satellite internet to the American countryside could make a difference. On the other hand, it is absolutely unknown how the government’s tightening of the screws on foreign IT vendors will turn out for consumers of telecom services in the United States.


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