In a cross-country comparison of mobile data pricing, ABI Research found the UK, France and Indonesia have among the lowest prices for mobile broadband plans.
The market researcher said Indonesia and other such developing countries are driving mobile Internet usage through the use of low-cost prepaid mobile broadband and Internet plans, driven by the popularity of BlackBerry and other such smart phones.
A 4 GB data package for the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) in Indonesia costs as low as $17 monthly, the firm said.
ABI Research said that mobile network operators in developed markets are struggling to cope with the demand that exponential data usage increases have placed on their networks.
Other countries including Italy and the Philippines have experimented with pricing according to time rather than data consumption, allowing users a fixed number of hours of connectivity every month.
Bhavya Khanna, analyst at ABI Research, said: "AT&T’s adoption of tiered data pricing is already seen in many European markets, and will signal the end of ‘unlimited’ data bundles."