Riding the popularity of ultra cheap data packs offered by Reliance Jio, which has amassed 280 million subscribers in a short time, India has emerged as the country that provides mobile data at the lowest rate in the world, a new study says.
Gone are the days, when you had to pay as much as Rs 250 to get one gigabyte (GB) of data in the country. Now Indians, on an average pay just Rs 18 for 1GB of data against a global average of Rs 600, as highlighted in research report by price comparison site Cable.co.uk.
Compared to what Indians are paying, a similar amount of internet data costs $6.66 (Rs 473 approx) in the UK and even higher at $12.37 (Rs 873 approx) in the US.
Mobile data packages are the most expensive in Zimbabwe where 1GB of data can cost a staggering $75.20 (Rs 5,339 approx), the report added.
“A country whose young population has a particularly high technological awareness, India offers a vibrant smartphone market, with strong adoption and many competitors. Data, therefore, is quite staggeringly cheap,” said the report.
With over 430 million smartphone users, India is the second largest smartphone market in the world after China.
For the study, data from 6,313 mobile data plans in 230 countries were gathered and analysed by Cable.co.uk between 23 October and 28 November, 2018.
For the India market, researchers studied 57 plans and found that 1GB of data was available in the country for as low as Rs 1.41 and for a maximum of Rs 98.83.
In terms of inexpensive mobile data packages, India is followed by Kyrgyzstan $0.27 (Rs 19.1 approx), Kazakhstan $0.49 (Rs 34.7 approx), Ukraine $0.51 (Rs 36.2 approx) and Rwanda $0.56 (Rs 39.7 approx)
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