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Report: This country’s carriers charge most for 1GB of mobile data
June 09, 2025
Canadian carriers such as Rogers and Bell lead the way when it comes to making revenue per gigabyte ofmobile data, according to a new report. As a result, the country’s citizens consume far less mobile data than other surveyed nations.
The report by telecoms websiteTefficient(h/t:Huffington Post) covered 36 countries around the world for 2017. It shows that Canadians only use an average of 1.3GB of mobile data per month. Only the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, and Portugal lagged behind with lower data usage.
The report adds that Canada has the highest total revenue per gigabyte of all surveyed countries (well over the 20 euro average revenue per user line seen below). In other words, Canadians are being charged an obscene amount of cash for a pittance of data, forcing them to closely monitor their data usage if they don’t want bill shock.
A sharp contrast to India
To put it in perspective, Canadian carriers are making over 35 times more than Indian carriers for the same amount of data used.
Speaking of, India has the lowest total revenue per gigabyte of mobile data consumed, according to the report. India also leads the way for mobile data usage growth, recording more than 300 percent growth in 2017 compared to 2016. By comparison, Canada recorded a measly six percent increase in mobile data usage.
Tefficient attributed India’s strong growth to the Jio network and its unlimited offerings. However, it also pointed to existing operators driving growth in the market.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is somewhere in between India and Canada, sitting above the 20 euro average revenue per user mark, but delivering larger data allowances than Canada. In 2017, Canada also saw the country receive a few unlimited data offerings, but this didn’t bring a massive spike in data usage. Tefficient suggests that bandwidth limitations of these unlimited plans are to blame, such as video quality being throttled by carriers.
It’s not the first time that Canada has been called out for high data fees: Tefficient’s 2016 report (PDF) called it one of the most expensive countries for mobile data too.
What are you paying for 1GB of mobile data in your country? Let us know in the comments section below!
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