Data costs in some parts of Africa are cheaper than you could imagine. In East Africa, particularly, where I lived for five years, the drop in internet pricing has created opportunities for multiple businesses and millions of people. Nairobi is the centre of this business transformation. It’s known as “Silicon Savannah”, with startups both international and local launching products targeted towards online customers. And, if you’re not from around those parts, you would assume that these African customers would be paying extraordinary prices to use these applications. That assumption is wrong. In the west, the birthplace of Netflix, Americans pay extraordinary prices. The below chart details pricing for Verizon.
Whereas the below quote comes from a Kenyan article details Kenyan pricing
“Kenyans are currently paying as low as 1 U.S. dollar for 2 giga byte (GB) of data, down from over 10 dollars. And for broadband, the telecoms are offering 10 dollars for unlimited internet.”
In other words, downloading two HD movies in Kenya is now cheaper than buying a gallon of milk. This is opening up the world to Kenya and the rest of East Africa. We should take note.