Tanzania is now the place to be for anyone intending to fit in the world of seamless communication according to new adjustments made by the East African coastal nation.
For only US$0.75, one gets a gigabyte of data in Tanzania making it the cheapest offer among countries in the regional bloc.
Rwanda which has been leading is now pushed below to second position with US$1.25 for a gigabyte of data.
In comparison to other countries in the regional bloc, Uganda (US$1.56) and Burundi (US$2.10) while Kenya, which was second in East Africa last year charging US$1.04, now charges US$2.25 per gigabyte (GB).
These latest statistics are according to data released by British technology research firm Cable.
The report, Worldwide Mobile Data Pricing 2021, reveals that Somalia is no longer offering the most affordable mobile internet in Africa, moving to third, as Sudan and Algeria take the first and second places respectively.
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“In Sudan, the cost of mobile internet is US$0.27, cheapest in Africa and fifth in the world. Algeria is second at US$0.51 and Somalia third at US$0.60.
Israel is now offering the most affordable mobile internet in the world at $0.05, moving from second place last year. Israel is followed by Kyrgyzstan (US$0.15), Fiji (US$0.19), Italy (US$0.27) and Sudan.
Dan Howdle, consumer telecoms analyst at Cable said many countries with cheap data have excellent mobile and fixed broadband infrastructure, enabling providers to offer large amounts of data, and bring down price per gigabyte.
“Others with less advanced broadband networks are heavily reliant on mobile data” he said. Nigeria and South Africa, which command high internet traffic from its tech-savvy population are charging US$0.88 and US$2.67 respectively.
Countries with long-established, ubiquitous 4G or new 5G infrastructure, the study points out, tend to fall towards the cheaper end of the table.
“This is due to the fact that mobile data plans have escalated far beyond the 1-10GB per month median, offering instead plans with caps in the hundreds of gigabytes, or even completely unlimited.
The cost per gigabyte in these countries will tend therefore to be very low.
