Digital inclusion represents one of Latin America’s most critical challenges and opportunities. Hundreds of millions of people remain disconnected from the digital economy, limiting their access to education, healthcare, financial services, and economic opportunity. Closing this technology gap requires coordinated action across infrastructure investment, affordability solutions, digital skills development, and policy reforms that address the region’s distinctive barriers to digital participation.
The Scale of the Digital Divide: 244 Million Unconnected
The statistics are staggering: 244 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean—approximately 32% of the total population—lack internet access entirely. Additionally, another 225 million people live in areas with mobile coverage but do not access services due to barriers including affordability, lack of digital skills, and insufficient awareness of digital opportunities.
The geographic divide is the most pronounced barrier. While 71% of the urban population in Latin America and the Caribbean have connectivity options, only 37% of rural inhabitants can access internet services meeting minimal quality standards. Rural connectivity averages approximately half the levels available in urban areas, with disparities sometimes reaching 40 percentage points between urban and rural populations. In countries like Bolivia, El Salvador, Paraguay, and Peru, more than 90% of rural households lack internet connections, while even better-performing countries like Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay have only about 50% of rural households connected.
Specifically, at least 77 million rural inhabitants across Latin America and the Caribbean cannot access internet services meeting minimal quality standards, with 46 million of these living entirely without internet access. This rural digital divide directly undermines the “immense social, economic and production potential” of rural territories and perpetuates rural poverty.
Multiple Layers of Digital Exclusion: Beyond Connectivity
The digital divide in Latin America operates across multiple dimensions beyond simple infrastructure absence. The GSMA analysis reveals a critical distinction: of the 225 million people living in areas with mobile coverage but not accessing services, only 45 million live in areas without coverage (predominantly rural), while 181 million have coverage but do not access services due to other barriers. This reveals that infrastructure is only one piece of the puzzle—affordability, digital skills, and awareness represent equally significant barriers.
Affordability emerges as the primary barrier for many populations. Broadband service baskets represent 12-32% of household income across the region, making connectivity economically prohibitive for low-income populations even where infrastructure exists. This affordability barrier disproportionately affects women, indigenous communities, and persons in extreme poverty, creating overlapping exclusion for vulnerable populations.
Digital skills represent the second critical barrier. Only 30% of the adult population in Latin America possesses basic digital skills, compared to 80% in developed countries. Without skills, even internet access provides limited benefit—individuals cannot effectively participate in online education, access digital government services, seek employment opportunities, or benefit from health information and services available online.
Awareness of digital opportunities represents the third barrier. Research in rural areas identified “insufficient awareness of the opportunities” offered by technologies as reducing the potential success of infrastructure provision initiatives. Without understanding what digital access enables—education, healthcare, economic opportunity, financial inclusion—populations lack motivation to invest in connectivity or develop digital skills.
The Gender Digital Divide: 89 Million Women Excluded
The gender digital divide represents one of Latin America’s most persistent inequalities, with approximately 89 million women—roughly 40% of the female population—either lacking internet access or unable to afford the service. The gender gap in internet use stands at 15% in Latin America, with women representing only 65% of internet users compared to 69% for men. Women’s smartphone access lags by 7 percentage points compared to men, limiting access to data-intensive applications for financial services, education, and employment.
More critically, women’s exclusion from digital spaces has severe economic consequences. According to the Alliance for Affordable Internet, if women had the same technological opportunities as men, global GDP could grow by up to one trillion dollars. The gender digital divide limits women’s job opportunities, access to financial services, ability to engage in digital entrepreneurship, and participation in the digital economy that increasingly drives regional growth.
The gender divide intersects with poverty and ethnicity, creating compounded exclusion. Women from indigenous or Afro-descendant communities face double disadvantage due to both gender and ethnic background, limiting their ability to access and benefit from technology. In Mexico, for example, 63% of women who do not use the internet cite lack of digital skills as the primary barrier, while financial constraints and unavailable infrastructure represent secondary barriers.
Beyond access, women face distinctive barriers within digital spaces. Women express greater concerns about online privacy, security, reliability of information, scams, and harmful content exposure compared to men. Additionally, women are less likely to receive digital tech training, feel confident in digital skills, or work in the digital sector, reflecting systemic gender bias in technology education and career paths.
Rural Connectivity as the Infrastructure Foundation
Addressing Latin America’s digital divide requires building telecommunications infrastructure reaching rural and remote areas. The Inter-American Development Bank, IICA, and Microsoft’s comprehensive study of 24 Latin American and Caribbean countries identified rural connectivity infrastructure as the foundational prerequisite for digital inclusion, but recognized that infrastructure alone is insufficient without complementary policies addressing affordability, digital skills, and adoption barriers.
Peru’s “Internet para Todos” (Internet for All) initiative demonstrates successful rural infrastructure expansion. Since its launch in 2019, the program deployed more than 2,500 4G sites in rural areas and expanded services to more than 3.7 million Peruvians in areas previously lacking coverage, with projections to reach more than 18,700 locations by late 2024. Critically, this infrastructure expansion directly contributed to internet use in rural Peru rising from 26% in 2019 to 57.6% in 2024—demonstrating that infrastructure investment translates into concrete usage increases when paired with complementary support.
Steps Required for Infrastructure Development:
Spectrum Policy Reform: Flexible spectrum allocation enabling shared-use and community wireless networks accelerates rural connectivity expansion beyond traditional commercial deployment. Bolivia’s telecommunications vice-ministry authorized flexible use of free-spectrum bands in 2020, facilitating community network growth. Panama’s new spectrum rules have enabled rural schools to establish reliable internet access for the first time. These regulatory innovations reduce barriers to entry for community-based and alternative connectivity providers.
Public-Private Partnerships: The Internet for All model operating in Peru demonstrates how alliances between private sector companies (Telefónica, Facebook), multilateral development banks (IDB, CAF), and supportive government regulatory environments enable large-scale rural connectivity. These partnerships combine private sector operational efficiency and investment with public sector regulatory support and development bank financing.
Community Networks as Complementary Infrastructure: Community wireless networks—locally owned and managed networks serving specific communities—complement commercial infrastructure by extending connectivity to areas commercially unviable for telecommunications companies. Colombia’s new regulatory framework for fixed community internet service providers has enabled remote villages to establish and sustain their own networks, fostering digital inclusion from the ground up.
Infrastructure Resilience and Disaster Response: As climate impacts and natural disasters increasingly affect Latin America, digital infrastructure must be designed for resilience. Regional dialogue through CITEL’s Permanent Consultative Committee emphasizes that rural connectivity strategies must incorporate resilience planning ensuring connectivity persists through disasters and emergencies.
Affordability Solutions: Making Connectivity Economically Accessible
Infrastructure investment means nothing if populations cannot afford to use it. Addressing affordability requires multi-layered approaches:
Universal Service Plans: Governments and companies must develop universal service plans focused on providing connectivity in isolated areas from the public sector, and rethink digital agendas toward subsidies for low-income populations, device acquisition programs, and digital literacy investments. Effective models combine government funding, private sector participation, and targeted subsidies ensuring affordability for economically vulnerable populations.
Flexible Service Offerings: Migration from standardized commercial service packages toward flexible offers adapted to low-income household realities is essential. Rather than requiring expensive monthly subscriptions, flexible offerings might include data bundles, pay-as-you-go options, and reduced-speed affordable tiers enabling basic access without full commercial pricing.
Device Subsidy Programs: Costa Rica’s device purchase subsidy program demonstrates direct impact on digital inclusion for low-income populations. Targeted programs providing subsidized smartphones, tablets, or computers to low-income users, particularly women and students, dramatically accelerate adoption.
Regional Roaming Elimination: Current roaming charges create pricing barriers for cross-border connectivity. CAF’s work eliminating roaming charges within regional integration blocks (Andean Community, Pacific Alliance) reduces costs for users and increases regional connectivity benefits.
Digital Skills Development: Bridging the Capability Gap
Infrastructure and affordability are insufficient without the skills necessary to use digital tools productively. The 50-point gap between basic digital skills in Latin America (30% of adults) and developed countries (80%) represents a critical barrier to digital opportunity.
Formal Education Integration: Technology education must begin early, particularly in areas where women have historically had less access—mathematics and computer science. Educational reforms incorporating ICT integration guidelines like Chile’s General Education Law of 2009 and Ecuador’s Organic Law of Intercultural Education of 2011 establish frameworks for systematic digital literacy.
Non-Formal Training Programs: Organizations like Fundación Telefónica’s “Conecta Empleo” program demonstrate effective non-formal digital skills training. Operating in 8 Latin American countries since 2016, this free program improves digital skills for unemployed people and those seeking to strengthen training or increase employability. Such programs reach populations outside traditional educational systems while maintaining flexibility to address local needs.
Gender-Specific Digital Education: Initiatives like “Girls Who Code” and “Women Techmakers” create supportive ecosystems helping women recognize potential in digital sectors and overcome male-dominated environment challenges. Additionally, mentorship and support programs in universities for women in STEM fields ensure women have tools necessary to overcome barriers in technology careers.
Contextual, Community-Led Skills Development: Recognizing that technology adoption depends on community participation and understanding local needs, successful programs incorporate bottom-up strategy, co-management, and stakeholder listening to understand specific community contexts rather than imposing standardized approaches.
Awareness Campaigns: Beyond formal training, awareness campaigns explaining digital opportunities—online education access, healthcare information, financial services, economic opportunity—motivate digital adoption and skills development. Many populations remain unaware that digital connectivity enables opportunities transforming their circumstances.
Policy and Regulatory Frameworks: Creating Enabling Environments
Closing the digital divide requires supportive policy environments enabling infrastructure investment, reducing regulatory barriers, and coordinating across government agencies managing interconnected digital transformation dimensions.
Comprehensive Digital Inclusion Strategies: The ECLAC publication “Overcoming Development Traps in Latin America and the Caribbean” identifies digital transformation as a unique opportunity to break cycles of productive stagnation, social exclusion, and institutional fragility affecting the region. Effective national digital inclusion strategies establish targets for 2026 and beyond, coordinate across multiple government agencies, and align infrastructure investment with skills development and affordability initiatives.
Rural Connectivity Roadmaps: CITEL’s technical assistance supporting Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Panama, Paraguay, Colombia, and Bolivia in developing rural connectivity roadmaps has benefited 5.2 million previously unconnected people—23% of rural population in these countries. These roadmaps provide step-by-step frameworks reducing usage gaps in underserved areas, focusing on affordability, resilience, and adoption.
Gender-Responsive Policy Targets: Colombia’s Plan TIC 2018-2022 incorporated digital inclusion principles with measurable targets for gender initiatives like “Por TIC Mujer” (For Women and ICT) and “Hackers Girls,” with targets of training over 6,000 women at different levels. Gender-specific policy targets ensure that digital inclusion benefits are distributed equitably rather than perpetuating existing gender inequalities.
Regional Coordination and Harmonization: CITEL’s work coordinating telecommunications policy across Latin America toward uniform standards, spectrum allocation approaches, and regulatory frameworks facilitates regional interconnectivity while avoiding regulatory fragmentation that increases costs and complexity. Regional coordination also enables shared learning, with countries adapting successful approaches from peers rather than starting from scratch.
Successful Initiatives Demonstrating the Path Forward
Multiple successful initiatives across Latin America provide proof that closing digital divides is achievable:
Peru’s Internet para Todos: Demonstrated that rural internet use can increase from 26% to 57.6% within five years through infrastructure investment coupled with complementary support. The program’s success reflects both physical infrastructure deployment and integration of awareness campaigns and digital skills training.
Colombia’s Community Internet Provider Framework: Colombia’s new regulatory framework enabling fixed community internet service providers has allowed remote villages to establish and sustain their own networks, proving that alternative connectivity models can succeed when given regulatory support.
Dominican Republic’s Digital Literacy Investment: A tenfold increase in rural digital literacy investment (achieved through CITEL technical assistance) has empowered local entrepreneurs to launch online businesses, broadening markets and improving livelihoods—demonstrating that skills training translates directly into economic opportunity.
Panama’s Spectrum Reforms: New spectrum rules enabling flexible use have given rural schools reliable internet access for the first time, enabling online learning participation and educational opportunity previously impossible.
ProFuturo’s Teacher Training Programs: Operating across Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, and Paraguay, ProFuturo’s structured teacher training and peer support networks enable educators to integrate technology meaningfully into teaching, overcoming pedagogical resistance and building sustainable adoption.
Conectar Igualdad (Connect Equality) in Argentina: This program distributed laptops to students and teachers since 2010, enhancing digital literacy and demonstrating that targeted device distribution programs drive adoption among vulnerable populations.
Remaining Barriers and Systemic Challenges
Despite progress, significant challenges persist in closing Latin America’s digital divide:
Structural Poverty and Inequality: With 32% of the population living in poverty and extreme poverty affecting many more, the affordability barrier for digital services remains insurmountable without significant government intervention. Economic inequality is the primary driver of digital exclusion, requiring not just digital policies but broader economic and social policies addressing poverty fundamentals.
Institutional Fragmentation: Digital transformation touches education, telecommunications, economic development, gender equity, and social policy, requiring coordination across multiple ministries and government levels. Weak institutional coordination and siloed government approaches have historically hindered progress.
Insufficient Sustained Funding: While initial investments in rural connectivity infrastructure have been substantial, sustaining programs, updating technology, training new cohorts of digital skills instructors, and expanding coverage requires consistent funding over years and decades. Government transitions and changing political priorities create risks that successful initiatives disappear when administrations change.
Sociocultural Barriers: Even when infrastructure, affordability, and skills are addressed, contextual and sociocultural factors affect adoption. Negative cultural connotations in certain regions, rural versus urban cultural differences, and trauma from conflict (particularly in Colombia’s conflicted areas) represent adoption barriers that technology and policy alone cannot overcome.
Climate Change and Infrastructure Vulnerability: As climate impacts intensify, digital infrastructure faces weather-related threats in vulnerable areas. Building resilience into infrastructure planning is essential but adds costs and complexity.
The Economic Case for Digital Inclusion
The economic imperative for closing the digital divide is compelling. Latin America’s digital penetration in key productive sectors remains far below developed economy levels: the water and sanitation sector uses only 1.02% of digital intermediate inputs compared to 3.11% in advanced economies; agriculture uses only 0.30%. These gaps represent productivity losses in sectors critical for rural employment and regional development.
Additionally, gender digital exclusion alone costs the global economy up to one trillion dollars in lost economic value. In a region where women represent half the population but are significantly underrepresented in digital economy participation, addressing the gender digital divide represents an enormous untapped economic opportunity.
Closing Latin America’s digital divide is achievable but requires sustained, coordinated action across multiple dimensions. Infrastructure investment extending connectivity to rural and remote areas provides the foundation, but must be paired with affordability solutions making access economically viable for low-income populations, digital skills development enabling productive technology use, awareness campaigns explaining digital opportunities, policy frameworks supporting investment and adoption, and gender-specific initiatives ensuring women benefit equally from digital transformation. Successful initiatives in Peru, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Panama, and elsewhere demonstrate that closing digital divides is possible when public and private sectors collaborate, regulatory frameworks support innovation, and governments commit to sustained investment and accountability. The challenge now is scaling successful models across the region while adapting approaches to local contexts. With 244 million people unconnected, 89 million women excluded, and enormous productivity gaps in key sectors, the cost of inaction far exceeds the investment required to bridge the gap. Latin America’s digital future depends on decisive action to ensure that digital opportunity benefits all populations regardless of geography, income, gender, or ethnicity.