NEW DELHI: Helmed by billionaire mukesh Ambani's jio, india has the cheapest mobile data in the world with 1GB costing just Rs 18.5 (USD 0.26) as compared to global average of about Rs 600, research by price comparison site Cable.co.uk showed. The average price of USD 0.26 for one gigabyte (GB) in india compares to USD 6.66 in the UK and USD 12.37 for the same amount of data in the US, the study, which compared mobile data charges in 230 countries, showed. The global average was USD 8.53 for 1GB.
"A country whose young population has a particularly high technological awareness, india offers a vibrant smart phone market, with strong adoption and many competitors. Data, therefore, is quite staggeringly cheap," it said. With over 430 million smart phone users, india is the second largest smart phone market in the world after China. In 2016, Ambani sparked a price war in India's hyper-competitive telecom market with the launch of 4G phone service Jio. Since then, jio has signed on 280 million customers by offering free domestic voice calls, dirt-cheap data services, and virtually free smart phones. Its offering has led to slashing of rates by its competitors as well.
