Study – UK Falls to Rank 92nd Cheapest in the World for Broadband

A new Cable.co.uk study has tested fixed broadband ISP packages from 220 countries to create a global price comparison, which finds that the UK ranks just 92nd cheapest (down sharply from 67th last year) with an average monthly cost of $39.01 (£29.66). But we drop to 101st (down from 93rd) for average cost per megabit ($0.90).

The research, which used data from 3,356 fixed broadband deals gathered between 19th January 2022 and 30th March 2022, does however note that the United Kingdom came 10th cheapest (down from 4th) when compared against the 29 countries studied in Western Europe.

Otherwise, Burundi came out as the country with the most expensive average package cost ($429.94), while Syria delivered the cheapest ($2.15), albeit partly due to its depreciated currency. By comparison, the average package cost across the world as a whole came out as $57.07 (down from $78.14), so at least the United Kingdom is comfortably below that.

However, it’s important to reflect that the core ranking of this study doesn’t tell the whole story, not least because it cannot easily reflect the other differences between packages, such as any value-added extras (static IP addresses, different router quality, security features, unlimited vs capped data allowances etc.).

Doing a true apples-to-apples value comparison would thus be nightmarishly difficult and, arguably, might work better if weighted to reflect cost using Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). The application of PPP is important because there can be huge differences between countries in terms of things like taxation, size of the state and monthly salaries (i.e. $1 will go many times further in some countries than others).