People in Albania have the least accessible internet in Europe, according to a new analysis of internet prices across the world. The study took the cost of a regular broadband package and compared it with the average monthly income.
In Albania, a standard broadband package is $16.62 or almost 5% of the $342 monthly income. The entire Western Balkan region as well as the rest of Europe offered better value for money in terms of accessing the internet. Bosnia and Herzegovina was the third least accessible with 3.37% of income going on an internet package. Other countries that performed poorly included Armenia (4.33%), North Macedonia (4.52%), and Georgia (3.62).
Liechtenstein had the best offer with internet costing just 0.05% of the monthly salary. Other leading countries included Monaco (0.07%), Luxembourg (0.08%) and Andorra (0.08%). Monaco appears to have the most affordable internet in the world.
The least affordable internet in the world was in Yemen where a monthly broadband package costs $2,466 a month, more than 30 times the average monthly income. It is also priced at more than $3,768 per Mbps. Romania had the cheapest at $0.13 per Mbps.
In June of this year, the Digital Quality of Life Index also noted that Albania had some of the least affordable internet in the world. This was measured by looking at the cheapest mobile and broadband packages in the country. The report did not however that the quality of the internet was above average in the region.
But when it comes to cybersecurity and the readiness of the government to deal with cyber threats, unfortunately, Albania fell short once again. It was beaten by Russia, Serbia and the Philippines in this factor as well as the protection of personal data of citizens.
