2020 Price Baskets

With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, many countries around the world witnessed a protracted shift in schooling, business, and government activities from physical to digital interactions. However, while about 85 per cent of the world’s population live within areas covered by 4G networks, nearly half of them were still offline in 2020.

One of the reasons why many people do not access and use ICT services is the high cost of connectivity relative to income. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) have partnered to collect data and analyse global and regional trends in affordability and pricing for the set of ICT price baskets listed below, covering different technologies including mobile voice, and mobile and fixed broadband.

The ITU Expert Group on Telecommunication/ICT Indicators defined these ICT price baskets for benchmarking the cheapest price plans for those five categories. Details on methodology are available on the ITU website.

In addition, our joint policy brief highlights the latest global and regional trends on affordability for this selection of price baskets (measured as the price of a basket relative to monthly income).