Improving infrastructure and increasing competition from internet providers not only helps increase coverage and improve the service but also reduces its cost.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
The fact that Nicaragua is the most expensive Central American country in terms of connecting to the internet means there is a need not only to improve basic infrastructure, but also to increase competition, thereby improving prices and services provided.
Hjalmar Ayestas Toruno, president of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Internet and Telecommunications (Canitel),"... considers that the cost of internet in the region is a matter of capillarity, in that the greater amount of customers and greater competition in the sector there is, the more opportunities there will be to have a cheaper service, and possibly a higher quality. "
Elnuevodiario.com.ni reports that "...The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) revealed in 2014 that in Nicaragua the price of fixed broadband reached an average of $15.6, the highest price out of all of the countries of the region, followed by Honduras, with $12, and Guatemala with $7.8.The lowest prices are still in Costa Rica, $2 and El Salvador with $6. "
"...The president of Canitel says in coverage Nicaragua is in the process of improving, because it has managed to set up 15,000 kilometers of fiber optics nationwide."Progress has been made, but more progress is needed; fiber optics is important for the country because it is what allows us to bring internet services to communities across the country," said Ayestas."
The industry's report shows that in 2017 the number of clients that used LTE technology on their cell phones amounted to 170,000, 62% more than in the previous year.
According to estimates by the Nicaraguan Chamber of Internet and Telecommunications (Canitel), currently around 1.2 million people use the Internet on their cell phone, and by 2018 they expect the number of users of the high-speed network to reach 245 thousand.
9.3 million mobile phone lines were registered at the end of 2015, but they are only able to operate on the 3G network as the 4G network has not even been put out to tender yet.
While the rest of the region has already made progress in the use of 4G technology, in El Salvador the process for awarding frequencies of that band between telecommunications companies has not yet even started.In the developed world they are now planning the implementation of 5G technology.
Using a World Bank loan coverage and internet telephony will be expanded in the North Caribbean Coast, the South Caribbean Coast, the Autonomous Region, and Rio San Juan and Managua.
From a statement issued by the World Bank:
MANAGUA, August 17, 2016 – The World Bank (WB) and the Government of Nicaragua signed today an agreement to implement a project aimed at increasing broadband access and make further progress in the development of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), especially in the Caribbean region of Nicaragua.
Five years after the fall of the monopoly, there are more companies, more users and a greater array of services on offer, with growth of 45% in the sector's contribution to GDP.
According to data reported by telecommunications companies to the Superintendency of Telecommunications (Sutel), the sector's contribution to the economy has grown by 45% over the past five years.
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