Story by
Francis Tan
Francis Tan is the Asia editor of TNW, who is based in the Philippines. He is particularly interested in Asian Internet startups, social me Francis Tan is the Asia editor of TNW, who is based in the Philippines. He is particularly interested in Asian Internet startups, social media and e-commerce. Get in touch with him via Twitter @francistan or Email [email protected].
If you hate your Internet provider for its absurd data rates and/or data capping, be thankful that you’re not living in Turkmenistan, where residents can only get a high-speed Internet connection by subscribing to a whopping $6,821 per month. True Story.
According to a news report from Inquirer, residents of the former Soviet republic will be able to browse the Internet at a “blazing-fast” 2mbps connection for that price, as posted on the Turkmen Telekom website. If that price is too steep for their budget, there’s also a much cheaper 64kbps unlimited plan for $213/month or an option to have it capped at 2GB for $43/month.
Per capita GDP in Turkmenistan was about $7,400 in 2010 according to the CIA World Factbook. That’s only an average monthly income of over $616 per month for the residents. Apparently, they don’t have a choice in Internet providers since Turkmen Telekom has a monopoly over the Central Asian country.
Bad times.
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