Category: Digital Divide

El Salvador has dramatically expanded internet access over the past decade, with roughly 4.88 million people online as of early 2025 (76.9% of the population) datareportal.com. The telecom sector was privatized in 1997 to encourage competition trade.gov, resulting in robust mobile growth. Today mobile networks cover ~93% of the territory, and 92% of Salvadorans have…
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Timor-Leste (East Timor) is making strides to overcome a long-standing digital divide. For years, this young Southeast Asian nation has grappled with low internet penetration, high costs, and slow speeds – a stark contrast to its more connected neighbors. However, recent developments such as the rollout of a submarine fiber-optic cable and the arrival of…
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Introduction – A Nation Offline The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a country of over 100 million people, but only about 27% of the population was using the internet as of early 2024 datareportal.com. This means roughly 75 million Congolese remain offline, a staggering digital gap in the heart of Africa datareportal.com. For comparison,…
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Colombia has seen rapid growth in internet access, reaching roughly three-quarters of the population online as of 2024 datareportal.com. Mobile phones and home broadband have become common in urban areas, transforming how Colombians communicate, work, and learn. However, these gains also mask stark disparities – a deep digital divide separates well-connected cities from rural and…
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Current State of Internet Access in Burkina Faso Burkina Faso’s digital landscape is marked by low internet penetration and heavy reliance on mobile networks. As of 2023, only about 17–20% of the population are internet users, well below the African average (~39%) pulse.internetsociety.org and the global average (~66%) datareportal.com. In raw numbers, that equates to…
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Benin has witnessed a quiet but striking internet revolution over the past decade. In the early 2010s, internet use was in the single digits of the population; today roughly one-third of Beninese are online datareportal.com pulse.internetsociety.org. This rapid growth has been driven by improvements in infrastructure and aggressive government initiatives, yet significant challenges remain. The…
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Historical Overview of Internet Development in Azerbaijan Azerbaijan connected to the global internet relatively early in the post-Soviet era, with the first internet connection established in 1994 and public access becoming available by 1996 az-netwatch.org. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, internet services were initially limited and expensive, dominated by dial-up connections and a…
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Historical Development of Internet Infrastructure and Policies Armenia’s journey to modern internet connectivity began in the 1990s with a single dominant telecom operator. After independence in 1991, the national operator ArmenTel (initially part-owned by Greece’s OTE, later by Russia’s VimpelCom) held a legal monopoly over telephony and internet services. This monopoly, granted in 1998, hindered…
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Andorra is a tiny mountainous principality that has transformed its connectivity from relying on difficult “mountain signals” to embracing modern high-speed networks. Despite challenging terrain and a historically isolated telecom market, Andorra now boasts comprehensive fiber-optic coverage, robust mobile networks, and even access to cutting-edge satellite internet. This report provides an in-depth look at internet…
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Algeria has seen steady growth in internet usage and infrastructure over the past decade. As of early 2024, the country had about 33.5 million internet users – roughly 72.9% of its population trade.gov. By January 2025, internet penetration reached ~76.9% developingtelecoms.com, indicating that roughly one-quarter of Algerians remain offline. Internet adoption is driven largely by…
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