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MISTICA: Dataquest: Digital divide widening in LA

From: Yacine Khelladi ([email protected])
Date: Wed May 30 2001 - 11:16:57 AST


Apr 17 2001: A new report from Dataquest, which is owned by Gartner,
shows that the digital divide in Latin America is widening.

The report studied access to basic telephone services and to broadband
Internet access services. While 80 percent of US consumers have
telephone connections, only 24.5 percent of Chileans do, and Chile has the
highest number of phone connections per capita of the Latin American countries
studied.

Argentina follows with 23.1 percent of people having phone connections,
while Colombia is next with 22.4 percent. Almost 20 percent of
Brazilians have phone connections, while the average regional figure is 17.3
percent.

Latin America also trails far behind the US in terms of broadband use.
Over 6 million Americans have broadband Internet access, while only 53,000
Brazilians, 38,000 Argentinians, 22,000 Chileans, and 20,000 Mexicans do.
There are no broadband subscribers in Colombia, Peru, Venezuela and most
of the rest of Latin America.

Dataquest says that governments in Latin America need to offer
incentives to telecommunications companies to put in place new networks in
all areas, including those that are currently underserved.



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