The trend of fixed- and mobile-broadband services becoming more affordable continued in 2023. The two connectivity benchmarks, namely the data-only mobile-broadband basket and the fixed-broadband basket, have become more affordable in all regions of the world and for all income groups. The global median price of the mobile-broadband basket dropped from 1.5 to 1.3 per cent of gross national income (GNI) per capita, while that of the fixed-broadband basket dropped from 3.2 to 2.9 per cent of GNI per capita.
Nonetheless, lack of affordability continues to be a key barrier to Internet access particularly in low-income economies. A wide gap persists between high-income economies and the rest of the world. Compared to prices in high-income economies, the mobile-broadband basket is 5.5 times less affordable in lower-middle-income economies and more than 20 times less affordable in low-income economies, where a fixed-broadband subscription, if available at all, costs the equivalent of a third of the average monthly income.
The United Nations Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development aims to make broadband in developing countries affordable by 2025, affordability being defined as the availability of broadband access at a price that is less than two per cent of the monthly GNI per capita. Where data are available, 114 economies out of 188 meet the affordability target with respect to the data-only mobile-broadband basket in 2023, 11 more than in 2022. Seventy-one economies out of 178 meet the target with regard to the fixed-broadband basket, the same number as in 2022. Sixty-two of the low- and middle-income economies meet the Broadband Commission affordability target in 2023, with either one of the two baskets. With the majority of the 134 low- and middle-income economies still above it, reaching the target remains a challenge.
Detailed global, regional, and country-level analysis for all five price baskets along with the full country-level dataset of ICT prices in 2023 will be released in early 2024[1].
[1] More information on ICT prices available at https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/ICTprices/default.aspx.