
Mobile communications and Internet in Suriname
The development of telecommunications in Suriname is roughly equivalent to the United States. Under the country code +597, there were a total of 1.03 million connections in 2021. Among them were 906,170 mobile phones, which corresponds to an average of 1.5 per person. In the US, this figure is 1.1 mobile phones per person.With about 188 webhosts, Suriname is below the world's average by population.
Back to overview: Suriname
Internet speed for cell phones and fixed network
With an average download speed of 11.09 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Suriname ranks 150th in an international comparison. The upload rate was only 5.7 Mbit/second (154th place).The Speedtest Global Index published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in April 2023 from 180 countries.
Mobile phone rates in Suriname
Every year, the International Telecommunication Union calculates for many countries what a mobile phone contract costs to use. A monthly budget averaging US$ 45.50 was calculated Suriname in 2021. Compared to the previous year, this amount increased by 30 cents.The ITU refers to the costs for monthly use and includes 140 telephony minutes, 70 text messages and a data transfer of 2 GBytes. The transfer speed should be the minimum of a 3G connection, i.e. at least UMTS, which is already outdated in many parts of the world. 2 GBytes do not sound much. However, this is already quite a high consumption in a worldwide comparison. If one does not take a fixed amount in US dollars, but converts it to the economic output per inhabitant, a user in Suriname spends 12.14% of his gross national income on mobile telephony. Worldwide, this rate is around 6.6 percent.
In the USA, the monthly cost was around $38.10.
In 2021, 4G network coverage in Suriname was 87 percent of all residents. The 4G network standard includes both LTE and WiMAX.
The following diagrams show the development of the various telephone and internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100 percent mean that, on average, every inhabitant has more than one connection.
Access to the internet in Suriname from 1990 - 2021
Broadband internet in Suriname 2002 - 2021

Landlines 1990 - 2021
Mobile phones 1990 - 2021
Distribution in 2021 | Suriname Total | Suriname percent | USA Total | USA percent |
---|---|---|---|---|
Internet users | 404,201.09 | 65.94 % | 304.52 m | 91.75 % |
Broadband users | 122,961.00 | 20.06 % | 125.89 m | 37.93 % |
Landlines | 119,977.00 | 19.57 % | 97.82 m | 29.47 % |
Mobile cellulars | 906,170.00 | 147.83 % | 361.66 m | 108.97 % |