Where the Internet is expensive like gold, students must starve to buy mobile network packages

According to the research of reasonable Internet association, Congo is one of the countries where mobile service is the most expensive in the world. Only 17% of Congolese people have access to online services, according to Congolese Ministry of Information and Communications. 'Reasonable price' is defined as when users can give up 2% of their monthly income in exchange for 1GB of mobile data.

In the Congo, the Internet is considered a luxury because of its mining monopoly and unclear pricing formula.

Late last month, Bonheur Malenga (27), a senior in engineering in Congo, had to choose between paying for food or buying a mobile network plan.

In an interview with the BBC, Malenga shared that he was very hungry but still decided to fast to buy a 24-hour package. He told himself that fasting one day is okay.

Malenga currently lives in the capital, Kinshasa, where people spend up to 26% of their income on mobile data networks. Not only Malenga, many of his friends also choose to buy mobile network packages and fast.

Eric Kasinga, who is preparing to become a PhD student living 2,000 km from Malenga, had to leave new shoes at the Internet shop and walk home because he could not afford to pay them.

Kasinga recounted that once, he went to an Internet store to send his doctorate file to a famous university in the Netherlands. The internet was too slow, so it took him 3 hours to send it while he only had enough money to pay for 1 hour. Upon learning the story, the innkeeper cursed Kasinga and said, "Internet is not for the poor". Kasinga had to leave her new shoes to make up for the lack of money.

Vanessa Baya, owner of a marketing company, said the quality of the Internet connection in Congo was too slow, her customers rarely dared to download files via email for fear of losing Internet capacity.

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