Indonesia and the UK are the cheapest countries for mobile broadband

INDONESIA AND THE UK are the top countries for the cheapest mobile data tariffs, according to ABI Research.

Indonesia's mobile operator Indosat offers an unlimited data package called Starone BIS for around £7.50 per month. This is not entirely surprising, as things are generally cheaper in most Asian countries compared to the UK, North America and most of Europe.

ABI Research said that many of the operators in Asia have such low prices because they are run by or connected with their governments, which keep a firm grip on pricing. This applies for Indosat and also for Singapore's Singtel, India's BSNL, and China's China Unicom. This might change in the near future, however, as governments begin to give up control of the telecommunications sector.

Rather shockingly for the usually robbed left, right and centre Brits, the UK is also at the top of the list. T-Mobile UK offers its Mobile Broadband Plus package for a very reasonable £10.21 a month. The tariff includes unlimited data, 100 minutes and 100 texts every month.

Of course, technically the 'unlimited' internet is a bit of a misnomer, as there is a 500MB cap on streaming of videos and uploading and downloading of files. However, regular web browsing remains uncapped. We're not exactly sure how it recognises whether you're on the web or downloading a file, but we imagine it has something to do with recognising higher data size and speed.

In comparison, Orange's cheapest rate of £10 per month offers only 500MB of data in total. 1GB of data costs between £15 and £20. O2's packages charge extra for data, so on top of the cheapest package at £10.50 customers need to pay an additional £3 for 100MB, £6 for £500MB, or £10 for 1GB.

Vodafone is even worse, with the cheapest 12 month plans coming in at £35 a month. For £15 a month you have to sign up for two years and that still only gives 250MB of data, which is a paltry amount for data-hogging smartphones and tablets.

So, rejoice - the UK is relatively cheap for some things, apparently. µ