Satellites, Submarine Cables & Cell Phones: Inside Haiti’s Battle for the Internet
Haiti lags far behind its neighbors in internet access. As of early 2025, only about 39.3% of Haitians – roughly 4.65 million people – were using the internet Datareportal. This penetration rate is among the lowest in the Caribbean Worldbank. In other words, over 60% of Haiti’s population remains offline, with connectivity especially limited in impoverished and remote areas. Urban centers like Port-au-Prince have far more internet users than rural villages, reflecting a significant urban-rural digital divide. The gap is also stark across gender lines: in 2020, only about 7% of Haitian women and girls had internet access – the lowest rate in Latin America and the Caribbean Worldbank. While that number may have improved slightly, a huge portion of the population still lacks the means or opportunity to get online. The vast majority of Haitians who do use the internet rely on mobile phones. There were about 10.2 million mobile connections active in Haiti by 2025 Datareportal. Many people maintain multiple SIM cards or phones, so mobile subscriptions outnumber individuals. Importantly, most of these connections are technically capable of data service – about 93.7% use 3G, 4G, or other “broadband” mobile network technology Datareportal. In practice, however, mobile broadband