Johannesburg to London at Two Megabits per Second

How much will $15,000 a month buy you in bandwidth? In Jo’berg it will get you a 2 Mbps E-1 connection to the UK. That same ammount of money, though, will get you 10 Gbps from London to New York! Om Malik writes…

The variations can largely be attributed to the numerous network build-outs taking place, as well as the number of competitive bandwidth providers. For instance, there are a lot of companies with fiber on the trans-Atlantic route, and as a result, a lot of bandwidth is available there for cheap. On the other hand, bandwidth costs to various African cities are extremely high because there aren’t that many cables in place. That might change with the many new cables currently under construction. Africa and Asia are two regions where a lot of new cables are being constructed, which is going to both help reduce bandwidth prices and spur demand for bandwidth-heavy applications and services.

Click here for a great breakdown of the numbers and what $15k (USD) buys around the world in bandwidth and implications of highcosts in low-demand markets.