According to new research, Laos ranked 14th among countries offering the world’s cheapest price per 1 GB of mobile data, the second Southeast Asian nation on the list after Cambodia, which made it to the fifth position.
The report by Cable.co.uk compared 5,603 mobile data plans in 237 countries, which were collected and analyzed to compare the cost of one gigabyte (1GB) of mobile data across the entire world.
According to the report, “researchers uncovered four main country archetypes that go the greatest distance to explaining the expense, or lack of, mobile data across the globe. Note that many countries will be formed of a mixture of two or more of these.”
Israel recorded the cheapest average price per 1 GB of mobile data at a mere USD 0.02. The report highlights Israel’s high smartphone penetration as well as robust competition from providers who “offer huge data allowances with extensive 4G LTE and 5G network coverage” as some of the reasons for the record-low rates.
Laos ranks 14th on the list along with Russia and Sri Lanka, with an average price of just USD 0.25 per 1 GB. However, Laos comes in at only 140th for broadband speed, with an average mean download speed of 17.64 megabytes per second.
Laos’ broadband costs have dropped significantly from the previous year, with research showing an average price per 1 GB at USD 0.99 in 2022.
When it comes to ASEAN members, Laos only falls behind its neighboring country Cambodia, which boasts an average price of USD 0.12 per 1 GB, placing it in the fifth position in overall rankings.
Myanmar, Singapore, and the Philippines were the only countries in ASEAN unable to make it to the top 50, recording an average price per 1 GB of mobile data at USD 0.99, USD 0.63, and USD 0.59, respectively.
“It’s encouraging to see the price of data coming down across the globe as a whole, with the vast majority of countries offering 1GB of mobile data for less than USD 2. It’s a very different picture than the one we saw in 2019,” said Dan Howdle, consumer telecoms analyst at Cable.co.uk.
What may come as a surprise, however, is the United States, which remains one of the most expensive nations on the planet for purchasing mobile data, ranking 219th in the world, with an average 1GB cost of USD 6.00.
