The number of fixed broadband subscribers in Latin America and the Caribbean has been steadily rising. Compound annual growth rate between the end of 2004 and the end of 2017 amounted to 12.9 percent. More than 44 percent of all broadband lines in Latin America and the Caribbean are DSL connections. 37 percent are cable. In December of 2017, 12 percent of all connections were fibre - an increase of nine percent from a year earlier. Fixed wireless, satellite, and other technologies account for the remainder of the connections. DSL is still the key technology for fixed broadband. Its share of lines dropped by five percentage points in 2017.

 

The regions major markets show considerable disparities, and the five largest markets together account for more than four-fifths of all users in the region. Penetration rate in Chile, Mexico and Argentina is higher than 50%. Colombia’s is around the regional average of 41.5% (40% in 2016) and Brazil is almost 6 percentage points below the regional average, although the country but has the highest growth rate.

 

Brazil is the largest single market, with 28.7 million broadband subscribers at end-2017. The country counts 13.1 million DSL subscriptions, which is over 38 percent of the regional total. Next is Mexico with 17 million and then Argentina with 8 million.

 

Research by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) shows that since 2010 the number of homes coming online in the region has increased by an average of 14.1% every year. The number of households that have access to the internet has doubled since 2010 and is currently around around 43.4%. The Commission’s report ‘The State of Broadband in Latin America and the Caribbean 2016’ showed that the use of mobile broadband had jumped from 7% in 2010 to 58% in 2015.