Mobile communications and Internet in Papua New Guinea
Compared to the United States, Papua New Guinea is massively lagging behind in the development of telecommunications. Under the country code +675, there were a total of 4.98 million connections in 2021. Among them were 4.82 million mobile phones, which corresponds to an average of 0.48 per person. In the US, this figure is 1.1 mobile phones per person.With about 5,006 webhosts, Papua New Guinea is below the world's average by population. At the end of 2019, 498 of these, or about 10 percent, were secured with SSL or comparable encryption.
Back to overview: Papua New Guinea
Internet speed for cell phones and fixed network
With an average download speed of 15.32 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Papua New Guinea ranks 140th in an international comparison. The upload rate of only 2.7 Mbit/second was significantly lower (173rd place).In mobile internet, i.e., on tablets and smartphones, Papua New Guinea comes 112nd with a download speed of 18.11 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 13 Mbit was enough for 40th 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 Papua New Guinea
Every year, the International Telecommunication Union calculates for many countries what a mobile phone contract costs to use. A monthly budget averaging US$ 44.40 was calculated Papua New Guinea in 2021. Compared to the previous year, this amount increased by 20 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 The transfer speed should be the minimum of a 3G connection, i.e. at least UMTS, which is already outdated in many parts of the world. 2 GBytes do not sound much.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 Papua New Guinea spends 21.59% 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.
Lack of network coverage with 5G
A modern 5G network does not yet exist in Papua New Guinea (as of 2021). The penetration rate of 4G, i.e., mobile communications with at least LTE speed, was recently 50 percent. In other words, 4.97 million people in the country had to make do with a maximum Internet speed of the outdated UMTS standard (or even less).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 Papua New Guinea from 1990 - 2021
Broadband internet in Papua New Guinea 2008 - 2021
Papua New Guinea is lagging behind in the expansion of broadband internet connections. Around 32 percent of all residents have access to the internet. Around 0 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. Landlines 1990 - 2021
Mobile phones 1990 - 2021
| Distribution in 2021 | Papua New Guinea Total | Papua New Guinea percent | USA Total | USA percent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internet users | 3.19 m | 32.05 % | 304.52 m | 91.75 % |
| Broadband users | 21,000.00 | 0.21 % | 125.89 m | 37.93 % |
| Landlines | 166,000.00 | 1.67 % | 97.82 m | 29.47 % |
| Mobile cellulars | 4.82 m | 48.42 % | 361.66 m | 108.97 % |
Debts an budget deficits in Germany
Chinese - Worldwide distribution