The price of super-fast fixed broadband internet connection, that allows download speeds of up to 1Gbps, in Romania is just EUR 8 per month, by far the lowest of all countries where such services are available, according to an analysis by Polish e-commerce and discounts platform Picodi.com. Fast broadband internet is also fairly cheap in Hungary – EUR 9.3/month and Poland – EUR 18.5/month.

Meanwhile, the price of such a subscription goes up to EUR 199 per month in Austria and EUR 209 per month in Australia, the most expensive countries from this perspective.

Picodi.com has also analyzed the prices of fixed broadband internet subscriptions that allow download speeds of up to 100 Mbps (which is the most widely available service around the globe) in 62 countries. Such subscriptions are cheapest in Ukraine (EUR 5.6 per month), Russia (EUR 6.96 per month), Moldova (EUR 8.74 per month), and Hungary (EUR 9.34 per month).

However, such subscriptions are not available anymore in Romania, where the entry-level offers from the top three local internet providers start at 300 Mbps. The price of such a subscription is RON 30 (EUR 6.27) at Digi (the biggest local internet provider), placing Romania also among the top three countries in the world with the lowest broadband internet prices.

Fixed internet in Romania, six times cheaper than in UK and seven times cheaper than in US

The entry-level broadband internet prices in Romania are two times lower than in Bulgaria (EUR 12.56/month), almost five times lower than in Spain and Italy (EUR 29.95/month), six times lower than in the UK (EUR 39.78/month), and seven times lower than in Germany (EUR 42.44 per month), and the US (EUR 45.23/month), Romania-Insider.com has calculated based on Picodi.com data.

Of the 62 countries analyzed, the most expensive internet is in South Africa (EUR 79 per month), followed by Iceland (EUR 62.51/month) and Norway (EUR 62.05 per month). The full Picodi.com analisis is available here.

Romania’s fixed internet, still fourth fastest in the world

The average download speed provided by fixed internet connections in Romania was 145.6 Mbps in October 2019, the fourth-highest in the world, according to data from speedtest.net. The fixed internet in Romania is thus twice faster than the global average (70.68 Mbps).

Only Singapore (194.09 Mbps), South Korea (165.82 Mbps) and Hong Kong (159.96 Mbps) have faster internet than Romania. Meanwhile, the average fixed internet speed in the US is 129.65 Mbps (tenth in the world), and the UK ranks 44th with an average speed of 64.33 Mbps.

Only 62% of households in Romania are connected to fixed internet

The number of fixed internet connections in Romania was 5.1 million at the end of June 2019 and the penetration rate for fixed internet was 62% at national level, according to data from the local telecom regulator ANCOM. About 71% of fixed internet connections were high speed connections, allowing download speeds of over 100 Mbps.

The average monthly traffic for fixed internet connections was 27 GB per inhabitant in the first six months of this year.

The top fixed internet providers by number of connections were RCS&RDS (52% of the total connections), Telekom (22%), and UPC (12%).

editor@romania-insider.com

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