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In a report published last week by the South American business analysis website BN Americas, it was stated that the Falkland Islands has the most expensive mobile data in South America, and the second-most-expensive in the world.

In a run-down of data costs carried out by British price-comparison firm Cable.co.uk over the months of April and May this year, over 5000 mobile data plans were analysed, worldwide.

BN Americas’ focus was on the 1000 or so price plans available in the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

According to Cable, in Central America one gigabyte of mobile data costs, on average, £1.55.* Caribbean prices are significantly higher, at £2.85 on average; but even the Cayman Islands, the most expensive of the group, costs little more than £8.50 per gigabyte.

South America is more expensive again, averaging £3.38 across the region. Prices in Uruguay (22p), Colombia (41p) and Chile (42p) are among the cheapest in the world; but the stats are skewed for the entire continent almost solely because in the Falkland Islands, 1GB of mobile data costs, on average, almost £32. Across the rest of South America, it was considered notable if prices exceeded 83 pence – or US$1 – per gigabyte.

Numbers provided by local monopoly telecoms-provider Sure suggest the cost of mobile data in the Falklands is actually even higher. On a pay-as-you-go SIM, the cost of 1GB of mobile data would be £40, the same as the (£40) medium contract package which includes 1GB of data along with 350 minutes and 70 texts. (Sure were not able to tell us what that data was worth separated from the other items.)

Either way, this makes the Falklands the second-most-expensive mobile data market in the world – only two pounds cheaper per gigabyte than St Helena. These costs are well over double the price paid in the 4^th-placed South Pacific atoll of Tokelau, and 5^th-placed war-torn Yemen. Top-of-the-table Israel charges 3.3 pence per gigabyte, 1000 times less expensive than the Falkland Islands. At 12p per gigabyte, even the remote island nation of Fiji is more than 265 times cheaper.

BN Americas also suggested that 1GB of data should cost the equivalent of 2% of average monthly income – with the additional onus on operators to be charging that same amount for five gigabytes by 2026.

This goal was put forward, last year, by the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) – part of the Web Foundation, and with a membership roster including tech giants, social media platforms, and USAID – which ‘promotes the affordability of mobile broadband in low- and middle-income countries’.

A4AI calls 1GB of affordable mobile data a month an ‘entry’ package – this is in developing nations, NB – and in any case pronounces that ‘a gigabyte of data is not enough’. They call for more affordable access, and ‘public policies focussed on lowering costs.’

According to Cable analyses, several Central American countries had prices lower than the regional average, albeit still exceeding 5% of average incomes nationally. But from Mexico south, nine countries already offer as much as two gigabytes for the benchmark 2% of monthly income, and three nations – Brazil, Peru, and Argentina – offer five. In many countries in the region, 5GB of mobile data costs little or no more than 1.

While many of these are impoverished and/or developing nations, the Falklands is not. According to the 2016 census, the average per capita income was £23,142pa – and so at £38.57 the cost of 1GB of mobile data is more or less (depending whose numbers you use) 2% of average monthly income. But Sure’s biggest available phone package here only extends to 3GB of mobile data, and at £65, costs more like 3.5% of income. 5GB would cost at least £105 (on £65 contract, plus four 500MB data boosters), or almost 5.5%. On pay-as-you-go, it would come to £190, or very nearly 11% of average monthly income.

All of these studies, what’s more, refer only to the simple price of mobile data – not to speeds, coverage, or any other potential measures of data accessibility.

Citing various studies, the Alliance for Affordable Internet argues that greater broadband access could help contribute economically, a 2019 study by the International Telecommunication Union suggesting that a 10% increase in mobile broadband penetration would lead to 1.2% growth in GDP in the Americas.

*all prices converted from US dollars to pounds on Tuesday this week

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For Falklands Radio

— The Nelson Evening Mail, Monday, July 13 1908
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A gold coin celebrating the assassination of Julius Caesar has been auctioned for more than $3m dollars.

50% of a man’s hair is gone before it becomes noticeable.

Good socialists need not refuse a good cigar if it is offered them.

Sri Lanka has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.

The suspension of Jeremy Corbyn is a factional attack that has undermined the fight against antisemitism.

Esperanto was created by Doktoro Esperanto.

South Yorkshire Police Operations Complex is on Letsby Avenue.

A gun is 22 times more likely to be used on yourself or a family member than on a home invader.

Sweden has increased its military budget by 40%.

The Democrats are taking quite a lead all over.

Many Indians have arranged-cum-love marriages.

Oreo have built a doomsday vault to protect their cookies from an asteroid.

The boulder is the truth that great men know by instinct. The mountain is the stupidity of mankind.

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—
For The Critic

—
For the Sri Lankan Sunday Times

— The Nelson Evening Mail, Monday, February 18 1907
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The Bombay Harmonium Company are neither from Bombay nor do they manufacture or stock harmoniums.

Thor Heyerdahl was right.

Only 38% of Netflix content is available outside the US.

Penguins can shoot poo over four feet (two their own; two presumably somebody else’s).

Venezuela is named for its resemblance to the Italian city of Venice.

In anthropology, a ‘horde’ can be as small as just five families.

The Ayn Rand Institute has taken out a PPP loan.

Carlsberg is no longer the best beer in the world… probably.

Patrick Harrington is one of the most well-known yogis in Denver.

Young pigeons may be eaten after 22 days.

The London Tea Auction closed its doors forever on June 29 1998.

The history of world literature is twice as long as the history of Hungarian literature.

Sir Richard Starkey MBE is 80 years old.
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— The Nelson Evening Mail, Wednesday, August 29 1906
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Globalisation is going into reverse.

The (great) auk became extinct because he forgot how to fly.

Your underpants contain cellulose.

In the medieval period, walking through a labyrinth or maze was seen as a mystical alternative to the laborious completion of a pilgrimage to, say, Jerusalem.

To get a full stop on a European keyboard, you need to use the Shift key.

There are no seal-hunters left in K’akartoq.

Five-card Charlie pays 5 to 1.

Jeff Bezos is on track to become the world’s first trillionaire.

The Bible is written over Herodotus, and the Koran over that.

Diamonds are easy to steal.

There is more genetic diversity within Africa than there is in the rest of the world put together.

The Marquis of C made sacks in Botany Bay.

None of us knows how long fear takes to decay.
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For The Critic

— The Nelson Evening Mail, Thursday, July 19 1906
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Jacob Zuma is the only black South African president never to lift the rugby world cup.

At Morrisons, your opinion gets rewarded with a £500 voucher.

Vegetarianism, which is based on false hypotheses and ideas, does not have followers in the Soviet Union.

Property blinds all eyes.

You must be prepared to stabilise if you need to excavate earth.

Apples don’t have daddies.

Only humans know that trees are beautiful.

Yudhanjaya Wijeratne is appearing at the CENS Workshop on Understanding and Countering Online Falsehoods and Influence Operations.

Necessity, Manitoba, has a population of 1,230 souls.

Almost everyone is happy to accept the cookies.

The lion-keepers at Dublin Zoo have a remarkable record in breeding lion cubs.

Gustav Mahler wrote the Kindertotenlieder before any of his own children died.

Basketball is not an interesting sport.
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— The Nelson Evening Mail, Tuesday, June 22 1909
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The night is chilly to a man without clothes.

You get a free tote bag if you subscribe to almost anything.

Sussex folk have few superstitions.

There are four benefits to sleeping with a garlic clove under your pillow.

Half a ducat is what monarchs pay their whores.

Only one man ever shook Thomas Mann’s hand.

The English have always been uniquely torn.

There is an Irish cricketer named after Pocahontas.

Towns are attractive to the discontented.

Glasgow University is stamping out rabies.

Elephants use their long noses to climb trees (but only when nobody’s looking).

Because the Lonely Planet says it, doesn’t make it so.

The great game is finished when everyone is dead.
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For Geographical