I recently gave an interview to a LAC magazine that specializes on ICT infrastructure and development. The interview was just published in Spanish here. Below is the text of the full interview translated from Spanish via Google translate with some edits.
What assessment your assessment on the development of broadband services in Latin America? What are the marketswhere we see more development in the region?
Despite having grown relatively rapidly in recent years, access to broadband in the region is still very limited according to the latest statistics (2012) provided by the ITU. Thus, in Uruguay, which leads the region in fixed broadband penetration thereof does not exceed 20% of the population. The most significant change over the same period has been the launch of mobile broadband, which was virtually nonexistent in 2007, which already exceeds the penetration of fixed broadband. Here, Brazil has taken the lead just more than 20% of the country’s population.
However, the penetration of broadband in the region is directly related to both Internet penetration in countries as well as their level of income per capita annually. Interestingly, some of the countries in the mobile broadband has taken off very quickly leaving far behind the fixed broadband. This is therefore a process of leap-frogging ¨ ¨ very similar to what is happening in African countries.
Undoubtedly, mobile broadband is the future of this type of connectivity not only in the region but in many developing countries. Both relatively lower costs and ease of use mobile devices and provide greater competition in new markets that would otherwise remain inaccessible.
