Colombia ranks seventh in Latin America in terms of access to internet, according to the 2013 annual study by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
The ITU released its “Measuring the Information Society” report providing statistics on near all of the countries in the world on the ‘information society’ and how connected the world is in terms of internet usage, mobile connectivity, and other fields.
The study shows that only 40% of the world is currently connected to the internet.
In terms of percentage of households that have access to internet, the study illustrated that Uruguay topped this list with 48% of houses having internet access in 2012. This was up from 43% in 2011. Colombia showed 31% of households with internet access in 2012 vs 25% in 2011. This put Colombia in fifth for South America and sixth for Latin America.
This jump from 2011 to 2012 was the greatest in South America in terms of household internet, and among the top three in Latin America along with Panama and Costa Rica.
The report also measured fixed broadband prices, or the cost of purchasing an internet connection as a percentage of the Gross National Income (GNI). Uruguay again took the lead for Latin America placing 37 in the 169 countries measured. While Colombia maintained fifth in South America, the country lost ground in this measurement compared to the rest of Latin America coming in eight for cheapest internet cost. Cuba, meanwhile, came in 169 place as the last country on the list.
Finally the ITU reported on pre-paid Smartphone data costs as well as a percentage of the GNI. The organization measured plans of 500MB. Here, to little surprise, Uruguay came in first for Latin America. Colombia ranked eighth in South America and eleventh in Latin America.