Page 18 - Measuring digital development The affordability of ICT services 2024

The affordability of ICT services

Mobile cellular low-usage basket

The mobile cellular low-usage basket refers to the price of the cheapest non-
promotional mobile cellular subscription available domestically with a minimum
monthly allowance of 70 minutes of voice calls and 20 SMS messages.

2024 was the last year for which ITU collected data globally for this basket. EGTI agreed
in 2024 to focus on mobile-broadband baskets to better reflect recent changes in
global consumption patterns.

The mobile cellular low-usage basket gives is limited and connectivity infrastructure is
access to the most basic form of connectivity. weaker, and SMS serves crucial, cost-efficient
Its monthly allowance amounts to hardly more functions, providing access to services such as
than a two-minute call a day and a message mobile money. In this context, it is concerning
sent every weekday. The price of this basket that the median price of this basket still
decreased in all regions and all income groups, amounted to 5.2 per cent of income and 3.4
with the global median falling to 0.9 per cent per cent for both the Africa region and the
of GNI per capita in 2024 (Figure 9). The LDCs, despite price drops. In other regions
service remains most relevant for low-income and income groups, the median price was
economies where smartphone ownership below 2 per cent.

Figure 9: Mobile cellular low-usage basket prices, as a percentage of GNI per capita
7
6 6.6
5
4 5.2
3 3.8 3.4 3.8 3.4
2 2.6 2.5
1 2.2 1.5 1.1 1.1 0.5 0.7 0.4 0.3 1.1 0.0 0.0 1.8 1.8 1.5 0.0 0.0 1.9 1.0 0.4 0.4
0 1.0 0.9 0.9 1.0
Africa Americas Arab States Asia-Pacific CIS Europe World LDCs LLDCs SIDS Low Lower-middle Upper-middle High

2023 2024 Income

Note: Medians based on the 209 economies for which data were available for both years� Economies are
benchmarked according to the price of the cheapest mobile cellular subscription available domestically with
a minimum monthly allowance of 70 minutes of voice calls and 20 SMS messages�
Source: ITU

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