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Comparing Internet Cafe Rates Worldwide

Posted by simoniker on from the eating-out-sometimes-expensive dept.

tcd004 writes "I recently began compiling the hourly rates from Internet cafes around the world into a map. The result reveals wildly different prices, even in countries with similar economic conditions and technological development. This often puts access out of reach for large populations in developing countries who live on less than $1 per day. It seems government policies and telecom deregulation (in countries like Nigeria) are often the strongest forces determining a cafe's hourly rates. If you want to do some of your own rate hunting, take a look at sites like Cybercafes.com."

2 of 273 comments (clear)

  1. Government Subsidies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What's interesting is that internet cafes in a number of the countries with low rates (Pakistan $0.60, Ghana $0.60, Indonesia $0.66, and Turkey $0.50) use government subsidies to keep their rates down. Ghana, in particular, has done this as they believe that increased exposure to the outside world will help encourage its citizens to become literate.

  2. No Korea? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can't believe South Korea was skipped in this survey. They have one of the highest rates of internet cafes of any country I've ever been too. And they're really cheap to boot.