Internet

Internet access continues to see strong growth in Colombia, with the total number of internet subscribers (mobile and fixed) increasing by nearly 11 percent in the second quarter of 2009. Colombia’s Comision de Regulacion de Comunicaciones (CRC) estimates that as of the June 2009 there were around 2.7 million internet subscribers and about 19.8 million internet users, out of a total population of 45.6 million.

In August 2009, the CRC reported that 87 percent of fixed-line internet subscriptions are broadband. Forty five percent of respondents in the InterMedia urban survey said they have household access to the web, though the type of connection wasn't specified in the survey.

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Colombia’s leading internet service provider (ISP) is Empresas Publicas de Medellin followed closely by the Telephone Company of Bogota (ETB), with each having just over 400,000 subscribers. Other prominent but less popular ISPs include Telmex Hogar and Spain's Telefonica, which entered the market by purchasing a majority operating stake of the state incumbent Colombia Telecom in 2006. As a strategic partner in Colombia Telecom, Telefonica has invested in a number of initiatives that have bolstered the spread of internet access and have strengthened Colombia’s fibre optic backbone, preparing the market for future expansion. In 2008 Telefonica invested $35 million in the construction of fiber optic infrastructure connecting Colombia to the undersea cable SAM1, increasing by 50 percent the country's international data transmission capacity.

As a part of Colombia's universal service mission, it has sought to create public-private partnerships that would extend establish multi-purpose community telecentres that would extend internet access and telephony to underserviced areas. The potential educational impact these public access telecentres is enhanced as they are often placed in educational institutions. COMPARTEL part of Colombia’s Universal Service Fund has implemented a competitive bidding scheme for private operators, in which local entrepreneurs in each respective community will operate the telecentre while receiving support from a network and management organization.

These efforts by the government have been quite successful especially in urban areas but there remain serious gaps in rural and marginal urban areas where telecommunications networks have the potential to be important tools for economic and social development. Whereas there has been considerable expansion of telecommunications infrastructure in urban areas, internet access in rural areas is dependent on a satellite dish connection for internet. In fact, 63 percent of Colombia’s municipalities with web access use a satellite link instead of the country’s telecommunications backbone.

There is a clear gender bias in urban computer and internet access. Men are 14 percentage points more likely at 67 percent to have household access to a computer and eight percentage points more likely at 50 percent to have an internet connection at home. In general, household access to the internet and weekly use of the internet rise alongside educational attainment and socioeconomic status.

Although there are clear differences in internet use between age groups, as illustrated above, each group reported about the same level of household web access. Older urban Colombians (between 45-60) are more likely to access the internet at home while young adults (18-29) prefer to log on at internet cafés.

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Young adults in urban Colombia not only lead in general web use they also are much more likely to utilize new social media such as blogging and social networking websites. Eighty-seven percent of young adult internet users reported visiting social networking websites at least monthly, at least 30 percentage points higher than other age groups. The gap is much smaller in reading or posting on blogs, with only a five percentage point difference between those 18 to 29 and 30 to 44.

There is also a difference in blog type preferences between age groups and between men and women. While young adults prefer personal or entertainment blogs, news blogs are more popular among older internet users. In addition, while men seem to prefer news and technology blogs, personal and entertainment blogs were popular among women.

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