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South Africans in Cape Town and Johannesburg Pay Much More For Internet Usage Than New Yorkers (qz.com)
South Africa may have some of the world's cheapest cities to live in, but using the internet in Cape Town and Johannesburg is surprisingly expensive by global standards. From a report: South Africans living in the country's two major cities spend more on their monthly internet costs than people living in New York, Tokyo, and even the perennially expensive Zurich, according to a report by Deutsche Bank. When comparing life in the global financial capitals, most other things, from rent to the cost of a cappuccino, were far cheaper in Johannesburg and Cape Town, making the cost of getting online even more of a shock to the pocket. Out of 50 cities surveyed, Joburgers spent the second most on monthly internet, beaten only by oil-rich Dubai. The amount shelled out by Capetonians ranked seventh behind Dublin, San Francisco, and Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand, according to the report, which compared daily prices and living standards of cities around the world.
Internet in NYC is cheap, like $42/mo for an unbundled 100mb Verizon connection. Many other parts of the US pay much more, or require bundling with cable/phone, for the same service.
A single place where internet costs more than the USA for comparable service does little to help the fact the three American cities on the list are among the most expensive. Americans pay far more for slower internet than the vast majority of the world. The repeal of net neutrality just made overall costs worse, expect to pay even more for services in the future as companies take fast lane fees and pass them back to consumers.
That's completely ignoring the fact that Internet access has been monopolised by the government-run telecommunications company Telkom for decades, and they've been milking people hard for all that time. Thankfully the introduction of fibre internet has seen a massive decrease in costs, since finally different providers are being allowed - I'm now getting 40Mbps fibre for the same price I was paying for 4Mbps copper - but it's still far from cheap.