Mobile communications and Internet in 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 The transfer speed should be the minimum of a 3G connection, i.e. at least UMTS, which is already outdated in many parts of the world. 2 GBytes do not sound much.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

Suriname is lagging behind in the expansion of broadband internet connections. Around 66 percent of all residents have access to the internet. Around 20 percent have their own fast internet connection, which is at least faster than the former ISDN (more than 256 kbit/s). All fixed connections via DSL, cable or satellite were counted here, but not those connected to the internet via mobile communications.

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