In 2025 the two connectivity benchmarks namely, the data-only mobile broadband basket, and the fixed broadband basket, have become more affordable in almost all regions, and across all income groups. Globally the median price of the data-only mobile broadband basket, expressed as a share of gross national income (GNI) per capita, fell from 1.5 to 1.4 per cent, while the fixed broadband basket remained stable at 2.5 per cent of GNI per capita.
Nonetheless, lack of affordability continues to be a major barrier to Internet access, especially in low-income economies. Despite some progress, a wide gap persists between high-income economies and the rest of the world. On average, subscribers in lower-middle-income economies spend about seven times as much of their income on a mobile broadband basket, as those in high-income economies, while subscribers in low-income economies spend about 22 times more. Where available, a fixed broadband subscription costs the equivalent of more than one quarter of the average income in a low-income country.
The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development set as a target that the cost of broadband access in developing countries should not exceed two per cent of GNI per capita by 2025. Of the 205 economies for which data are available for the mobile broadband basket, 130 meet the affordability target, six more than in 2024. For the fixed broadband basket, 88 out of 195 countries meet the target, ten more than in 2024.
However, among low- and middle-income economies, only 54 economies, or roughly four in ten low- and middle-income economies, have met the affordability target for at least one of the two baskets. Country-level and aggregate statistics for all five ICT price baskets for 2025 will be released in November 2025.[1]
[1] See https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/ICTprices/default.aspx for more information on ICT prices.