Surfshark rankings put Israel first for internet affordability, but 59th for internet quality
If you’re going to be working at home, Israel isn’t a bad place to be doing it: Israel ranks eighth among 85 countries around the world in the Digital Quality of Life Index compiled by the virtual private network provider Surfshark.
Israel ranked No. 1 in the world for internet affordability, but the survey also found that Israel was in just 59th place for internet quality. The survey looked at 12 parameters that include such factors as price, quality, speed and stability of the network, level of government digital services and cybersecurity.
Digital life has taken on added importance as the coronavirus pandemic forces more people to work online from home.
Ahead of Israel in the rankings were Denmark, Sweden Canada, France, Norway, the Netherlands and the U.K. The United States ranked only 22nd, although it ranked third for government digital services. The 85 countries surveyed account for more than 80% of the world’s population, Surfshark said.
Israel ranked No. 1 for affordability, based on the cost of the cheapest mobile and broadband plans available in the country. On internet security and e-government, Israel ranked 28th and for electronic infrastructure it was No 31.
Although Surfshark said digital quality of life was correlated with gross domestic product per capita, in the Middle East, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia failed to provide digital wellbeing for their citizens commensurate with their wealth due to low levels of internet quality and e-security. Israel’s digital quality of life was higher than its per capita GDP would suggest, the report said.
Globally, Surfshark found that internet affordability was highly variable between countries. However, in three-quarters of the countries surveyed, people have to work more than the global average to afford the internet. The global average to pay for a month of the cheapest broadband was three hours and 48 minutes; for mobile it was just 10 minutes. In Israel, the cheapest mobile (of 1 megabyte) cost just 17 seconds of pay and 23 minutes for broadband.
At the bottom of the overall rankings were Honduras, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Lebanon.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Dafna Maor
Quelle/Source: Haaretz, 25.08.2020
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