The Geography of WAN Pricing

Product pricing is a key factor in deciding when and where to use MPLS, DIA, broadband, or other network connectivity services at each site.

But today we want to focus on the "where."

The spread in price between MPLS and other services varies considerably around the world, as do the actual prices for all of these services.

While discussing the geography of network prices, it's important to keep in mind how the geography of every network is unique in terms of: 

• Local bandwidth needs and availability
• Access line lengths
• Competitive landscape of the country, metro area, or the site itself
• Backhaul costs to get to regional data centers or cloud on-ramps

All of this can impact your WAN total cost of ownership. So we'll have to paint with a broad brush, but we've selected some data to demonstrate how much geography actually impacts your pricing. 

Each of the following maps compares the average of median prices in all metros in each country for which we have data across the globe.

For MPLS we chose 20 Mbps, as it's still the most typical port size for that product, and then 100 Mbps.

This analysis assumes a 10/30/60 CoS split. It also adds in an access line of the same bandwidth as the port. For DIA, since the need for an access line can vary by location, we have left access out of the analysis. We also used higher capacity ports since DIA skews toward larger bandwidths. 

Average Country Prices for 20 Mbps MPLS + Access

• The monthly price for 20 Mbps of MPLS with a 0-5 km access loop ranges from a low of around $600-800 in several European countries to $10-20k in MENA locations. 
• Taiwan is the median country in this analysis at $1,350 a month. 
• All of the countries below the median are from Europe, the U.S. and Canada, or Oceania. 
• Above that median are Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. 

You can explore all of TeleGeography’s WAN content over here.