BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Borneo Bulletin/ANN): Brunei was ranked 42nd out of 179 countries for mobile data affordability in a study by United Kingdom (UK)-based comparison company Broadband Genie.
According to their study, the residents in the Sultanate spend around 1.19 per cent of their monthly salary on mobile data, with the average plan costing USD21.55. This also placed Brunei at ninth in the Asia-Pacific region and fourth in Asean.
Meanwhile, Singapore was ranked first with the residents spending only 0.35 per cent of monthly salary on plans averaging US$17.13, followed by Luxembourg (0.40 per cent on plans averaging US$21.16) while Guinea has the least affordable mobile data rates at 56.29 per cent of monthly salary spent on plans averaging US$115.58.
According to the company, people around the world spend around 4.09 per cent of their salary on a mobile plan with over 10 gigabytes of data, at an average spend of US$24.20.
The company said people typically spend more of their salary on mobile data than on a high-speed Internet connection (3.81 per cent). European and Asian countries take up the majority of places in the top 20.
At the regional level, Europe has the most affordable mobile data in the world, spending 1.37 per cent of an average salary on a mobile data plan.
This is followed by Asia, typically spending 3.21 per cent of an average salary on a phone contract with mobile data included.
Lesotho (18th) and Honduras (19th) are the only countries in the top 20 outside of Asia and Europe.
The UK (5th), Germany (13th), Italy (20th), United States (35th), Japan (41st), France (44th) and Canada (62nd) have mobile data more affordable than the global average.
The company derived the results of its study by comparing the average cost of a monthly mobile phone plan with over 10 gigabytes of data against average wages from 70,806 people for 179 countries. – Borneo Bulletin/ANN
