The percentage of the population with Internet access in Central America increased 17% between 2016 and 2018, increasing from 44% to 61%.
Data from the report "Internet in Central America 2018", compiled by the Commercial Trade Area of CentralAmericaData:
Currently, Costa Rica is the Central American country with the highest proportion of households with Internet access, with 77% of the total, followed by Panama with 67% and Honduras with 31%.
Just as having good physical roads is vital for production and commerce, the "information highway" must work perfectly if you want to take advantage of the benefits of remote working.
Costa Rica, which has serious problems in its road infrastructure, also has problems with the "information highway", according to the opinion of executives at companies that do teleworking.
In Costa Rica a tender is being launched for the implementation of 100 MB of wireless internet access in parks, plazas, train stations and other public spaces.
$45 million will be invested in the project, and the aim is to connect 985 wireless access points in 360 districts of the country's 82 cantons, including 62 public libraries, 28 train stations and 7 civic centers for peace.The delivery of offers is scheduled for November 2017.Seedetails of the tender.
The Akamai report for the fourth quarter of 2016, notes that compared to the previous quarter, there was an increase of 10% on the average internet connection speed in Panama and a reduction of 1.2% in Costa Rica.
Although average internetaccess speed (IPv4) remains very low compared to otherLatin Americancountriesand other regions, the "Akamai State of the Internet IVQ 2016" report, states that both countries saw increases compared to the same quarter of 2015. Costa Rica registered an interannual increase of 15%, while in Panama the interannual increase was 47%.
The Superintendency of Telecommunications in Costa Rica is inviting bids for 7 projects to provide telephony and internet services to 52 districts in the Central Pacific and Chorotega Region.
From a statement issued by the Superintendency of Telecommunications in Costa Rica:
SUTEL opens competition to bring telephony and internet services to the Central Pacific and Guanacaste.
A report by Akamai highlights an 8.4% drop in the average connection speed in Costa Rica in the second quarter compared to the same period last year.
Between late 2014 and June this year, Costa Rica fell 20 positions in the ranking of broadband Internet, surpassing only Paraguay, Bolivia and Venezuela. Panama recorded a slight growth of 1% in the period in question, while Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras, did not even figure in the report.
"In 2001, Costa Rica was near the top of the list of countries with the best connections together with powers such as South Korea".
Now, the State of the Internet report, by Akamai Technologies, reveals that from 2014 to 2015, Costa Rica continued to lose position in the global ranking of average connection speed, and from a poor 94th place has become worse, listed at 102, according to an article on Nacion.com
A bill has been presented to eliminate sales tax (13%) on internet access services in all its forms, including broadband and via mobile.
An article on Prensalibre.cr reviews the initiative presented by the Libertarian Movement Party which "... seeks to authentically interpret subsection g) of article 1 of Law No. 6826, Law on General Sales Tax, and provide legal certainty in implementing this policy, in the sense that the term "similar" for the purposes of the Act and its regulations, will not cover internet services in all its forms, including those provided through broadband and mobile technology.
The government's proposal sets 40 goals which should be completed by 2021, focused on broadcasting, e-government, spectrum, the broadband digital divide and infrastructure.
From a statement issued by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT):
San Jose, 02 September, 2015. The Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT), specifically the Vice Ministry of Telecommunications as a specialized technical body, presents the proposal of the Second National Development Plan for Telecommunications (PNDT) 2015-2021.
More companies are brining fiber optics to households in the greater metropolitan area of Guanacaste, promising profound changes in the market of fixed internet services.
Netsys is one of the companies which will start offering residential fiber optic services in the area of Rohrmoser, while Coopeguanacaste will be focusing on the central districts of Nicoya, Santa Cruz and Carrillo.
The IDB's Broadband Development Index places the country in the 3rd. place in Central America, 12th. in the Americas, and 48th. among the 63 countries in the global ranking.
The four pillars are defined, according to the broadband ecosystem (see Annex II). (1)
Public policy and strategic vision. (2) Strategic Regulation, (3) Infrastructure (measuring the access elements), and (4) Applications and Training (measuring the adoption and use).
From a report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB):
In Costa Rica contracts have been awarded to the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad and Claro to provide telephony and broadband Internet services in six cantons in the south of the country.
The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) will be responsible for developing projects in Buenos Aires, Osa, Corredores, Coto Brus and Golfito. Meanwhile Claro de Costa Rica is in charge of projects in the area of Perez Zeledon.
The country's loss of competitiveness because of the deterioration of basic infrastructure development, is replicated in the case of the internet where average speeds are only 2.8 Mbps, far from the world average and below that of most countries in the region.
Costa Rica stands out in Central America for the quality and volume of goods and services related to technology which it produces and exports.
While in other countries there are a greater variety of packages and lower prices than those offered in Costa Rica, lack of modernization of networks and costs are preventing operators from improving their services.
At present, only 56% of the population has internet access and of this total 80% use services with download speeds of 1 Mbps, 10% with 2 Mbps and less than 1% use download services with over 10 Mbps.
The Superintendency of Telecommunications in Costa Rica is putting out to tender the service to provide access to Fixed Voice and Broadband Internet Services in the south of the country.
SUTEL-BNCR Competition No. 010-2014
Contract to provide access to Fixed Voice and Broadband Internet Services to all communities in the districts of Biolley, Brunka, Buenos Aires, Chánguena, Colinas, Pilas, Potrero Grande and Volcan, in the canton of Buenos Aires, Puntarenas province and the provision of these services to Public Service Delivery Centers located in these communities, with support from the National Telecommunications Fund.
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