According to a study by Cable.co.uk, out of 233 surveyed countries, Botswana ranks number 228 when it comes to the affordability of mobile data. This means, in short, that the country has the fifth most expensive mobile data pricing.
The study measured the cost of 1GB of mobile data in the surveyed countries and it found that in Botswana, 1GB cost an average of $15.55 (~ P190.00) from 9 studied mobile data packages. The cheapest price found for 1GB was $9.36 (~P114.00) and the most expensive was $31.26 (~P392.00).
For context, Israel is the cheapest country in which to buy mobile data in the study, with an average cost of 1GB at $0.04 (~P0.50), about 380 times cheaper than Botswana. Saint Helena is the most expensive place in which to buy mobile data on the study, with the average cost of 1GB there at $USD 41.06 (~P519.00), only 2.7 times more than in Botswana.
Commenting on the worldwide rankings, Dan Howdle, consumer telecoms analyst at Cable.co.uk, said, "At the more expensive end of the list, we have countries where often the infrastructure isn’t great but also where consumption is very small. People are often buying data packages of just tens of megabytes at a time, making a gigabyte a relatively large and therefore expensive amount of data to buy."
In other lists, Botswana ranked 142nd out of 220 countries in broadband pricing, 189th out of 224 countries in broadband speed, and 67th out of 230 countries in the cost of electricity.
5,292 mobile data plans in 233 countries were gathered and analyzed by Cable.co.uk in the study for mobile data pricing.