Sponsored by tech company Cisco, the Latin America Broadband Barometer reported in January that Chile ended 2006 with 1,034,000 broadband internet connections, nearly 6.8 dedicated connections per every 100 Chileans and far above the regional average. The southern cone country now boasts both the highest rates of broadband connectivity and general internet use in Latin America.
In Latin America, Chile’s 6.8 percent penetration rate is followed by Argentina with a 3.2 percent penetration rate, Brazil with 2.6 percent, Peru and Costa Rica with 1.5 percent, and Colombia with 1.1 percent.
While the Cisco Barometer does not track Mexico, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported a broadband penetration rate of 2.8 percent in their most recent report. Other benchmark countries cited in the OECD report include the U.S. at 19.2 percent, Canada at 22.4 percent and Spain at 13.6 percent.
Broadband connectivity is frequently seen as a key ingredient for a successful, innovative economy. “We reached the goal in half the time,” said Aldo Signorelli, the general manager of the Chilean Association of Information Technology Companies (ACTI). “In short, what we projected for eight years we reached in only four, thanks to an annual growth rate of nearly eighty percent...We can now begin work on increasing the actual speed of the connections and in increasing the amount of families and small businesses that are wired,” he continued.
With the one-million mark reached nearly four years ahead of time, the Barometer now hopes to see 1.5 million connections in Chile by 2010, and Barometer organizers hope to replicate the success in other Latin American countries.
Internet World Stats uses a variety of official information to publish updated statistics on a country’s general internet penetration - the total percentage of a country’s residents that use the internet, whether it be on a dedicated line or in a cyber café or library. Chile once again leads the Latin pack with a general penetration rate of 42.4 percent as of January, 2007, supporting the argument that broadband connections do trickle down and increase a population’s general internet penetration rate.
Other Latin American countries largely lag behind Chile including Argentina at 34 percent, Costa Rica at 22.2 percent, Mexico at 19 percent, Peru at 15.8 percent, Brazil at 13.9 percent, and Colombia at 12.9 percent. In comparison, 69.6 percent of U.S. residents have access to the internet, while globally, 16.6 percent of the world’s 6.5 billion people surf the net.
Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet said late last year that ending Chile’s digital divide was essential to the country’s success, pointing out that there was now one computer for every 30 students in Chile. Bachelet pledged, however, that her government would specifically focus on increasing internet connections in Chile’s schools. “These increases will allow us to develop our economy and increase its competitiveness, something that it is essential not only for generating more jobs, but decent and dignified jobs,” said Bachelet.
