The high prices that people in Africa pay for the internet are rarely matched by the connection speeds. This is according to a report by Speedcheck, a website that allows users to test the speed of internet connections, on the relationship between the price of mobile data and the speeds at which carriers deliver the data. Tunisia, the study’s highest-ranking African country, has download speeds that are almost twice as fast as those of Israel, the study’s highest ranking country. The average price per gigabyte in Tunisia though is 65 times that of a gigabyte in Israel. This means even though there are instances where internet speeds in the continent might be faster than those elsewhere, customers are still paying exorbitant rates for their connections. Speedcheck analyzed the mobile broadband speeds experienced by the users of its service in 89 countries in five continents and compared this to the cost of data in each of the countries. The result is a speed-price index (SPI). The higher the index, the more value for money for mobile internet users. The Speedcheck report, which covers nine African countries, adjusts these data prices with the purchasing power index for each country for better comparison. According to the study, users of mobile internet in Africa countries are getting comparatively low value for money. High data prices in Africa are a determining factor, as looking at speed alone, Tunisia, Morocco and South Africa have faster speeds than Israel, which is ranked first in the SPI.
SOURCE: QUARTZ AFRICA