Bangladesh has met the affordability target of internet prices set by the United Nations Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development in 2021.

The information was revealed at a recent report of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), giving a high-level overview of the results from the 2021 price data collection exercise, focusing on changes in affordability.

In 2018, the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development set its updated affordability target: to bring prices for entry-level broadband services below 2 per cent of monthly gross national income (GNI) per capita by 2025.

According to the report, among the economies for which data are available for both 2020 and 2021, fewer met the 2 per cent affordability target in 2021 than in 2020, across the different types of service.

Thus, only 96 economies met the target with regard to the data-only mobile broadband basket in 2021 (7 less than the previous year), and only 64 economies met the target with respect to the fixed broadband basket (down by 2 from the previous year).

Bangladesh met the target of affordability for both broadband and mobile internet, according to the report.

The prices of broadband baskets remained far above the 2 per cent target for most of the least developed countries (LDCs). Of the 18 economies where mobile broadband Internet access cost more than 10 per cent of GNI per capita, 16 were LDCs.

Only 4 LDCs – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal – met the broadband target in 2021. Bangladesh with both data-only mobile and fixed broadband baskets, Bhutan and Myanmar thanks to the affordability of data-only mobile broadband, and Nepal due to fixed broadband.

SK