Methods and Sources

The above figures are based on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) ICT price data collection rules to determine the cheapest data and voice low-usage basket per economy. That is, the cheapest plans providing at least 70m of voice, 20 SMS and 500MB of high speed data (≥ 256Kbit/s) over a 30-day (or four weeks) period of time from the operator with the largest market share in each economy. The pricing data was collected by the A4AI and the ITU during the second quarter (May-Jun) of 2021.

In this basket no data was available for Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran and Marshall Islands.

Gross National Income (GNI) per capita data and PPP conversion factors are from the World Bank World Development Indicators, 2020 (or last available year). GNI per capita current LCU was used for all cases, unless when prices were registered in USD. In those cases the Atlas method (current US$) was used instead. Where private consumption PPP ratios were unavailable in recent years (since 2018), estimations are used based on applying change index of PPP ratios for GDP if available on last available PPP ratio for private consumption. No recent (2018 or later) GNI data was available for Andorra, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Cuba, French Polynesia, Gibraltar, Greenland, Monaco, San Marino, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Taiwan, province of China and Yemen.

The reference exchange rates are based on 2021 Q2 average – or Q1 when Q2 was not available (extracted 9.11.2021) from the (Exchange Rates, Domestic Currency per US Dollar, Period Average, Rate – ENDA_XDC_USD_RATE) and UN OPS (Operational rates of exchange – monthly).

The designations employed and the presentation of material on the map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of ITU and of the Secretariat of the ITU concerning the legal status of the country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Palestine is not an ITU Member State; the status of Palestine in ITU is the subject of Resolution 99 (rev. Dubai, 2018​) of the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference.

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