Latin America’s Access to Broadband Grew Steadily in 2017

Broadband access in Latin America increased by 6.1% in 2017 in relation to the previous year, reaching 72.4 million connections.

The countries with the highest penetration are Argentina, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay, while Honduras, Nicaragua, and Cuba are the least connected, according to research firm Dataxis.

Brazil saw the highest growth rate last year, yet is still almost six points below regional average.

While Chile, Mexico, and Argentina experienced a penetration rate exceeding 50%, broadband connections in Colombia are not growing at the regional speed.

According to a report by the digital marketing and sales agency Latamclik, internet access in Latin America in 2018 has reached 66.1% of the population, which means that more than 400 million people are now online.

In Paraguay, more than 50% of the population connects to the internet, while penetration in Venezuela has reached 53.1%. Some 85 million people in Mexico are connected, at 65% of the population.

DSL was still the most used technology with a market share of 48.1%, but it continued losing weight for the benefit of fiber optic, which reached a share of 13.3%.

Household penetration reached 41.5% in 2017, adding one point and a half to 2016’s penetration rate.

Despite this positive forward momentum, analysts have long been arguing that the broadband service in Latin America is expensive and of poor quality, saying that the region has a long way to go to compete with the wider world.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has also suggested that countries in the region should modernize their telecommunications systems to reduce the digital divide.