MAP > Internet Providers in Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest and the least densely populated country in Central America. Country’s steady GDP growth since the year 2010 bellies low economic base, given the fact that it has lowest GDP for every capita in this region, with some 60% of the total population living below the poverty line. Well, as a result, a large chunk of the economic drive has been as a result of the international assistance, and in particular from the World Bank as well as the other agencies. The new canal that has been built between the Pacific as well as the Caribbean with the Chinese Funding that incorporates the deepwater ports, the oil pipeline, international airport, and the railroad.

There have been very ambitious attempts to be able to offer greater economic benefits to this country, and the project has been indicative of the China’s economic encroachment in this region. Nicaragua’s telecoms markets have been able to mirror poor economic achievements with the fixed-line teledensity, as well as the mobile penetration is usually the lowest in the Central America. Broadband market has remained nascent, with the population penetration being below 4%.

Majority of the internet users have concentrated in largest cities. This is given that the rural, as well as the marginal areas, do lack access to most basic telecom infrastructure, the internet cafes offer the public access to the internet as well as email services, but these tend to get restricted to large population centers. To be able to address the poor infrastructure, the World Bank has given funding to a project that is aimed at enhancing connectivity via the national fiber broadband network. There have been separate schemes to enhance the broadband in the eastern regions and offers the links to the Caribbean submarine cables.

The America Movil’s Claro has a very clear lead in the whole of Nicaragua’s telecom sectors, and this includes the fixed line, the mobile broadband as well as the pay TV. Number of the mobile subscribers overtook number of the fixed lines in early 2002, and the mobile sector now does account for the majority of the lines in the service. The Telefonica’s Movistar has been the only company that is competing with the Claro in fixed line and the mobile market. In this mobile sector, the Movistar now holds a third of the market, but in the fixed line sector, it only has 10% of the market share.