Leveraging ICT potential for Latin America’s poor

I borrowed the title from an interview I gave back in January.

Revisiting the data, the new studies show that Mobile data usage in Latin America, like mobile usage everywhere, is growing steadily and fast.

Cell phones have become firmly ensconced as essential goods rather than luxury items.

With mobile subscriptions having overtaken fixed lines as the preferred method of communication, mobile subscriptions penetration totals 89% of the population. Mobile subscriptions are forecast to grow by 8.2% annually in 2010, slightly below the 10.9% registered in 2009 but still strong growth. This is part of the stabilization of the market.

Also, 20% of mobile services revenue came from data in 2009. The region has entered a stage when data services are essential to the whole mobile business model (source: Pyramid Research).

Broadband penetration in Latin America is about 27% below the world average. This slow uptake has been largely due to the high prices charged by providers, which often have a virtual monopoly in their areas of operation. Countries that lead broadband penetration in Latin America are Chile (9.8 percent), Argentina (9.3 percent) and Brazil (5.8 percent). (Sources: IDC/Cisco; ITU; OECD).