[x-pubpol] Disparity between Cost of Data in wired broadband and Mobile broadband.

[Sivasubramanian M]

I am attending the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Dialogue where Jac Kee
mentioned the Alliance for Affordable Internet report. Looked up that
report and find the following:

In 2011, the UN Broadband Commission established a target
> <http://iif.un.org/content/broadband-commission-digital-development> for
> broadband affordability: entry-level broadband (defined as 500MB of mobile
> data) priced at 5% or less of average national income (as measured by GNI
> per capita). By early 2015, according to the ITU
> <http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/publications/misr2015/MISR2015-w5.pdf>,
> 111 countries — including all of the world’s developed countries and 60% of
> developing countries — had achieved this target.


The report shows estimates (2014) averaging $ 12 for 500 MB of data as cost
for those with a monthly income of about $100, with the result that the
cost of Access for those with less than $100 ( $ 3.1 per day ) amounts to
as much as 12% of their income. In one or two countries it is as high as 35%

http://a4ai.org/affordability-report/report/2015/#poverty_income_inequality_and_the_case_of_mistaken_affordability

What is striking is the disparity between the price of mobile broadband
data and the price of wired broadband data.  I have a 120 GB wired
broadband data limit for which I pay about $36 dollars per month, and
offered 500 GB of data for a total price of $ 50.  This price more or less
reflects the average global cost of wired broadband data, which could be
even less expensive in the US or Australia.  If we project this pricing (
500 GB for $ 50 ) onto the the UN definition of minimum data for basic
access, the cost per 500 MB actually would amount to 50 cents per month,
which would be less than a half percent of the monthly income of a person
earning $ 3.1 per day.  In theory, if I offer tethered wireless connection
from my wired broadband to 1000 users in the vicinity with a data limit of
500 MB data limit per user, my cost per user would be 50 cents.

The UN notion ( and the reality in some countries ) of the Internet NOT
being affordable in some countries arises from this definition of
requirement as 500 MB of data based on MOBILE data prices.

Make a wish that the phone companies offer mobile data at wired broadband
prices !  I just did.

Sivasubramanian M.

-- 
Sivasubramanian M <https://www.facebook.com/sivasubramanian.muthusamy>
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