Study ranks UK 46th globally for the average cost of mobile broadband data

Comparison site Broadband Genie has today published a new study, which analysed 3,446 SIM-only mobile phone tariffs across 234 “countries” to identify the average cost per GigaByte (GB) of data (mobile broadband) for each. The United Kingdom ended up ranking 46th with an average of $0.27 (£0.20) per 1GB of data – behind Italy and France, but in front of Germany and Spain.

The new study essentially examined the monthly subscription price of various packages and, if no data cap was available or the plan offered “unlimited” usage, then they instead used whatever the Fair Usage Policy (FUP) of the provider set out (i.e. many mobile operators will often set a flexible limit in their FUP, which for example in the UK is often c.400-750GB per month). But experiences do still vary and this is not an exact science.

Naturally, there is another big caveat to consider with this study, which is the fact that it only looks at the raw numbers and doesn’t appear to do any weighting for the different sizes of each economy or Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). Likewise, there’s no accounting for the technological maturity and network performance of each market, or whether such operators are commercial or state funded. Suffice to say, the results should be taken with a pinch of salt.

The results show that the UK ranks 46th with an average of $0.27 (£0.20) per 1GB of data, which places us well behind the likes of Italy that ranks 6th ($0.05/GB), Portugal 12th ($0.10/GB) and France 25th ($0.15/GB). But on the other hand, we’re well in front of Germany in 79th ($0.46) and Spain on 54th ($0.30). The USA also sits further down than all of them in 94th place.

Globally, Syria was found to offer the cheapest data ($0.01/GB), while Saba is the most expensive ($11.06/GB). But the latter isn’t a “country” and is instead a special municipality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea.

Price per GigaByte of mobile data by country (2026)