Results from a new study suggest that Canada is one of the most expensive countries in the world for mobile data.

The study, conducted by financial services comparison firm HelloSafe, found that Canadians paid an average of $7.36 per gigabyte (GB) of data in September 2023 – making it the tenth most expensive country for mobile data in the world.

According to the study, Americans pay the seventh-most in the world per GB of data, at $8.22, while New Zealanders came next on the list at $8.07. The country with the most expensive price for mobile data was Zimbabwe, where one GB costs $59.97, according to the study.

The results were based on data collected by U.K. mobile comparison site Cable.co.uk from June to September 2023, using an analysis of 5,000 cellular packages from 233 countries and territories around the world.

The study found that people in Israel pay the least for their data, at just $0.03 per GB. Italy and Fiji were the next cheapest at $0.12 per GB, while people in France pay $0.28, according to the study.

HelloSafe pointed to Italy and France as markets that have been “characterized by an opening-up to competition that seems to have driven down market prices.”

“This makes the median price for one GB of mobile data 26 times cheaper in France than in Canada, and 61 times cheaper in Italy than in Canada,” the company said.

HelloSafe said it also used government data from 2022 to examine the price of mobile data plans in each Canadian province. It found that Nova Scotia and Quebec were the most expensive, while Saskatchewan was the cheapest by a significant margin.

“This result is due to the presence of the operator Sasktel, which allows it to compete with the three historical players of the market – Telus, Rogers and Bell,” it said.

Methodology:

The results are based on data shared by Cable.co.uk collected between June and September 2023. This data was compiled from a sample of over 5,000 mobile plans analyzed by the site worldwide.

The figures for the price of a mobile plan in Canadian provinces are taken from the Canadian government's "Canadian and International Wireline, Wireless and Internet Price Comparisons" report from 2022.

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