Average broadband access prices worldwide down by 50 per cent says new ITU report

A new research report just published by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) shows that the prices of 'average' broadband connectivity across the globe has dropped by more than 50 per cent over the past two years.

Martyn Warwick reports. The encouraging figures are contained in the ITU's latest annual ICT Price Basket (IPB) Study that measures and compares fixed-line and mobile telephony as well as fixed broadband Internet access services in terms of a percentage of Gross National Income per head of population across 165 different economies from around the world. The report, whose primary purpose is to track over the years the differences in telephony and broadband pricing between the developed and the developing economies, shows that between 2009 and 2010 fixed broadband prices fell steeply, everywhere, by an average of 52 per cent. That said, the ITU strongly makes the point that for the developing nations even such a big reduction does not mean that the services are yet affordable to the vast bulk of people.