technology

Panama lags in web access

Just 8.2 percent of the population has access to the Internet.

la prensa

disconnected: According to an international group, Panama lags behind many other countries in access to the Internet.1146530

Panama is lagging behind the region and the rest of the world in terms of the number of its residents who have access to the Internet.

According to Internet World Statistics, just 8.2 percent of the population in Panama has regular access to the web. This puts the country far behind the world average, which is 20 percent, and the average for Latin America and the Caribbean, which is 22 percent.

But those figures are disputed by Vivian Carles, marketing manager at Cable & Wireless Internet, who said that the access is actually twice as high as that estimate.

“Currently, 16 percent of households have Internet,” he said. Similarly, the National Authority of Public Services shows a higher rate of penetration, namely 22.3 Internet users per 100 inhabitants.

“The expansion of the Internet has moved along, considering that many people have access to it without having a PC at home,” said Luis Chamorro, director of communication at the Public Services Authority. A project created by the administration of President Mireya Moscoso and continued under Martín Torrijos, increased access to the Internet by supporting micro-entrepreneurs who opened Internet cafes. To date, a total of 125 such cafes have been opened.

“This has contributed to the bridging the digital divide in the country and widened access to knowledge,” said María Jiménez, who oversees the program.

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