By Serene Luo

SINGAPORE is the cheapest place in the world to make a phone call or surf the Internet using a broadband connection.

Still, people here do not fare so well when it comes to being tech-literate or wired up.

A survey released on Monday by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) placed Singapore at the top of the tree - tied with the United States - for lowest communications costs.

Next up was Luxembourg. Among Asian economies, Hong Kong was the closest to Singapore, in fifth place. South Korea and Japan were placed 23rd and 24th respectively, on the list of 150 economies.

Madagascar brought up the rear.

The survey - the first by the ITU on communications costs - compared charges for fixed line and mobile phone usage as well as broadband tariffs, in relation to the average monthly income.

It found that communications charges comprised just 0.4 per cent of the average monthly income of US$2,706 (S$4,202) in Singapore.

In Madagascar, such charges can make up more than 60 per cent of the average income.

In terms of tech-savviness, which measured markers such as computer penetration and communications infrastructure, however, Singapore did not fare as well.

It ranked 15th, behind Hong Kong and Japan.

Sweden and South Korea were placed first and second respectively.

However, a senior analyst at research firm Frost and Sullivan, Mr Kamlesh Kalwar, said Singapore's placing was 'not too bad', considering that the countries that ranked higher were at the cutting edge of cellphone and Wi-Fi development.

'Our rankings may improve when Singapore's next-generation broadband network is up and running,' he said.

He added that one of the reasons Singapore did not fare well could be that information technology-literacy rates among the elderly were not as high as those in other developed countries.

'Our older generation may not be as literate or tech-savvy,' he said.

On the cheap broadband rates, Mr Foong King Yew, research director for carrier operations and strategies at marketing research firm Gartner, noted that prices in Singapore had been diving over the past few years, in line with rising competition.

Ms Mok Yun Cheng, 27, who recently returned from her studies in Australia, knows first-hand how cheap the rates are in Singapore.

In Australia, her plan, which allowed for 30GB of data a month, cost about A$50 (S$49.30). She would have had to pay surcharges if she exceeded this limit.

By contrast, most broadband plans in Singapore do not have a data cap, and start at about $20.

Ms Mok said, however, that she did not mind paying more in Australia, as 'the customer service and technical support were quite prompt and transparent'.

'I would be willing to pay a bit more for the service,' she said.

serl@sph.com.sg

This story was first published in The Straits Times.