Broadband Prices: Methodology

Broadband prices per month are meant to be representative examples of general prices for broadband in an economy and represent the monthly subscription cost to broadband service. They do not reflect the average cost of broadband in an economy. The prices shown do not include installation charges or telephone line rentals that are often required for DSL service. The prices do not necessarily represent the least expensive or fastest connections available and are can only be used as a rough example of current offers available to users within an economy. The prices were gathered looking for the most "common" or cost-efficient broadband offer. As an example, if an economy offered 256 and 512 kbit/s ADSL, the faster speed was only used if it offered better value per 100 kbit/s. In other words, the Monthly price per 100 kbit/s had to be equal or less than the lower speed in order to be used.  Some ISPs place download limits on broadband connections (Australia, Bosnia, Iceland, Kyrgyzstan). Where applicable, the service offering closest to 1 Gigabyte of data per month was used. Other economies, such as Hong Kong, China; Macao, China; and Lithuania put time restrictions on broadband usage.  The service offering closest to 100 hours per month was selected. All prices were gathered between June and July 2003 with exchange rates valid as of 11 July 2003. All prices are listed in nominal US$. Broadband offers are usually residential offerings unless only business connections are available from the ISP. Most services are DSL-based but cable and WLL prices were used where they were less expensive per 100 kbit/s, or were the only services available. Broadband prices per 100 kbit/s represent Broadband prices per month divided by the Speed down and then multiplied by 100. Broadband prices as a % of monthly income (GNI) are calculated by dividing Broadband prices per month by average monthly income per capita in the economy as given by its GNI (Atlas method). Speed down represents the maximum advertised download speeds, while Speed up represents the maximum upload speeds, when given. Type represents the type of broadband service selected for comparison. ISP the Internet service provider offering the broadband service in the economy. Download speeds do not represent actual speeds that individual users are able to obtain; many factors contribute to overall speed and the published speeds are the advertised maximum speeds from the ISP.  ISP choices do not necessarily reflect the dominant ISP in the market.  When upload speeds are not listed it is because they were not indicated in the promotional materials. With ADSL however, it is safe to assume that upload speeds are significantly lower than download speeds. Most economies combine ISP and ADSL charges, although some economies tend to keep them as separate items (e.g. Japan). The prices included are those advertised and may or may not include ISP charges. Where ISP charges were known to be separate, they were included. Taxes may or may not be included in the advertised prices. Broadband prices in some countries have a limit on the amount of data transferred in a month. Others, such as Hong Kong, China have time limits on connections for the monthly fee. Income figures are calculated based on 2002 World Bank data on GNI (Atlas method).

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