In 2026, the two connectivity benchmarks, namely the data-only mobile broadband basket and the fixed broadband basket, have become more affordable 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, has fallen from 1.3 to 1.2 per cent, while the fixed broadband basket has decreased from 2.5 to 2.3 per cent of GNI per capita.
Nonetheless, lack of affordability continues to be a major barrier to Internet use, 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 over seven times the share of their income on a mobile broadband basket as subscribers in high-income economies. Subscribers in low-income economies spend about 20 times as much. A fixed broadband subscription costs the equivalent of more than one quarter of the average income in a low-income economy.
The universal and meaningful connectivity target for affordability is two per cent of GNI per capita. Of the 202 economies for which data is available for the mobile broadband basket, 138 meet this target, eight more than in 2025. For the fixed broadband basket, 91 out of 192 economies meet the target, five more than in 2025. Three in ten economies meet neither the fixed nor the mobile broadband affordability target.
Among low- and middle-income economies, however, only 63, or roughly half, meet the affordability target for at least one of the two baskets.
Mobile broadband affordability has also improved across countries in special situations. For the first time, LLDCs and SIDS met the two per cent affordability target, with median prices expressed as a share of income, falling from 2.7 to 1.7 per cent and from 2.1 to 1.9 per cent, respectively. In LDCs, the median price declined from 6.3 to 6.1 per cent, but remained well above the target.
Country-level and aggregate statistics for all ICT price baskets for 2026 will be released by December 2026.[1]
[1] See https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/ICTprices/default.aspx for more information on ICT prices.