{"id":112659,"date":"2016-02-15T13:04:17","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T11:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=112659"},"modified":"2016-02-15T13:06:39","modified_gmt":"2016-02-15T11:06:39","slug":"mobile-phone-costs-in-south-africa-vs-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/112659\/mobile-phone-costs-in-south-africa-vs-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Mobile phone costs in South Africa vs the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

The World Bank has compiled an index showing which countries in the world carry the highest and lowest monthly costs to own a mobile phone.<\/p>\n

The index <\/a>measures the monthly cost of running a mobile phone as a percentage of income, in US dollars as well as in purchasing power parity terms (excluding the cost of the phone).<\/p>\n

The data is based on 2014 prices and rates.<\/p>\n

According to the group, the Democratic Republic of Congo is the most expensive country to own a mobile phone, with almost 53% of gross national income (GNI)\u00a0going to mobile phone costs.<\/p>\n

This is followed by the Central African Republic (52%) and Madagascar (50%) and Malawi (49%) which all occupy the halfway mark for phone costs in terms of GNI.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the spectrum, Macao, China is the cheapest at only 0.1% of GNI\u00a0on mobile phone costs. This is followed by Singapore, Hong Kong and Denmark (0.2%).<\/p>\n

South Africa is the 71st\u00a0cheapest out of 174 countries measured, with costs coming in at 1.66% of gross national income.<\/p>\n

There are two other ways of looking at the data, however.<\/p>\n

The first is in raw dollar terms – in which case Sri Lanka has the cheapest mobile phone usage costs, at $0.97 per month. In this metric, Tuvali and the Netherlands have the highest costs at $45.73 and $41.47, respectively.<\/p>\n

South Africa has the 59th lowest costs at $10.23.<\/p>\n

The other metric is in terms of purchasing power parity – prices adjusted to reflect localised market conditions (in dollar terms).<\/p>\n

Here, Nicaraagua and Bulgaria carry the highest costs (at $78.21 and $63.03 respectively), while Sri Lanka maintains the lowest cost at $2.69. South Africa has the 87th lowest cost at $21.49.<\/p>\n

Here is the data broken down by three metrics<\/h3>\n

Cheapest and most expensive countries for mobile phones – Prices<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/th>\nCountry<\/th>\nPrice\u00a0US$<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nSri Lanka<\/td>\n$0.97<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nBangladesh<\/td>\n$1.42<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nIran<\/td>\n$2.01<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nPakistan<\/td>\n$2.12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nNepal<\/td>\n$2.49<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
59<\/strong><\/td>\nSouth Africa<\/strong><\/td>\n$10.23<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
170<\/td>\nSpain<\/td>\n$37.80<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
171<\/td>\nFrance<\/td>\n$40.27<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
172<\/td>\nIreland<\/td>\n$40.33<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
173<\/td>\nNetherlands<\/td>\n$41.47<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
174<\/td>\nTuvalu<\/td>\n$45.73<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Cheapest and most expensive countries for mobile phones – PPP Prices<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/th>\nCountry<\/th>\nPrice PPP$<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nSri Lanka<\/td>\n$2.69<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nBangladesh<\/td>\n$4.01<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nCosta Rica<\/td>\n$5.67<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nIran<\/td>\n$6.09<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nDenmark<\/td>\n$6.58<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
87<\/strong><\/td>\nSouth Africa<\/strong><\/td>\n$21.49<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
170<\/td>\nCape Verde<\/td>\n$54.55<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
171<\/td>\nAlbania<\/td>\n$56.01<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
172<\/td>\nMadagascar<\/td>\n$58.25<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
173<\/td>\nBulgaria<\/td>\n$63.03<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
174<\/td>\nNicaragua<\/td>\n$78.21<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Cheapest and most expensive countries for mobile phones – % of income<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/th>\nCountry<\/th>\n% GNI<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nMacao, China<\/td>\n0.10%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nSingapore<\/td>\n0.19%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nHong Kong, China<\/td>\n0.19%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nDenmark<\/td>\n0.19%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nQatar<\/td>\n0.26%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
71<\/strong><\/td>\nSouth Africa<\/strong><\/td>\n1.66%<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
170<\/td>\nLiberia<\/td>\n39.99%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
171<\/td>\nMalawi<\/td>\n48.86%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
172<\/td>\nMadagascar<\/td>\n50.45%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
173<\/td>\nCentral African Republic<\/td>\n51.64%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
174<\/td>\nDemocratic republic of Congo<\/td>\n52.76%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

More on mobile<\/h3>\n

Telkom reports big growth in mobile, but revenue stalls<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

R20,000 mobile phone bill in SA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Watch: Robbers make stealing a mobile phone look easy<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

SA mobile market share: Vodacom vs MTN vs Cell C vs Telkom<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The World Bank has compiled an index showing which countries in the world carry the highest and lowest monthly costs to own a mobile phone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":31987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[26,189,4423],"class_list":["post-112659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-headline","tag-mobile-2","tag-world-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112659"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112673,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112659\/revisions\/112673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}