South African here.
Much like my Zimbabwean counterpart, Gandanga11, it's ridiculously expensive to get a decent line. By decent I mean anything more than 4Mb lines. The partially government-owned telecommunications company, Telkom, held an iron grip on broadband meaning service providers could only offer so much. We were getting broadband for roughly the same price, but it really just depended which ISP had better ping.
There was a time not too long ago that a 10Mb line would have set you back about $200 a month. Thankfully it's about half that now, and they're offering 20Mb lines for that amount. But it was a struggle for years to get them to ease up. Their infrastructure and business model were particularly bad and they admitted at the end of last year that their customers hated them: http://www.fin24.com/Companies/ICT/Telkom-Our-customers-hate-us-20131119
Telkom upgraded the lines last year soon after that report, so I now have a 4Mb line, where I had a 2Mb one before. The problem now is that the ping for gaming has been inconsistent because they're apparently working on the exchanges. Late night gaming tends to be fine, though, but I shouldn't have to wait til midnight to be able shoot some zombies, lag free.
What was heartbreaking for me was when I met someone from California, who said he paid about $30 a month for a 30Mb line at the time. A friend of mine went to Turkey and when he returned, he told me how a fruit vendor was sitting with a 100Mb line for cheap. I couldn't believe it. I often hear of the ridiculous internet speeds in South Korea, and as long as their northern neighbours don't nuke them anytime soon, perhaps it's time to move.
