Customers in Germany, the US, Canada, Japan and South Korea still pay through the nose for their gigabytes — despite the fact that overall prices fell in nearly all 41 countries considered in the latest Digital Fuel Monitor, a bi-annual publication on mobile data pricing from Finnish management consultancy Rewheel.
Unlimited or 100GB mobile data plans are now available in 23 of the 41 countries, the consultancy said in a study released Friday.
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Of the major global economies, Canada performed the worst. The report shows that for €30 (US$35.70) a month or less, you get just 2 gigabytes (GB) on average on a smartphone tariff.
Infografik Smartphone tariffs: what €30 per month or less buys you ENG
Canadian users thus pay 41 times more for mobile data than, for example, users in Finland.
In the US, it is 10GB, in Germany it stands slightly higher at 15GB. In Germany, which the report said is one of the countries charging "exorbitant" prices, the only true flat-rate plan available on the market costs just under €200. Many other tariffs include a reduction in speed after a certain amount of data has been used.
