CARACAS, Venezuela, May 31, 2011 – Cisco announced today the results of the Broadband Barometer study for 2010, reporting a growth of 29.6 percent in mobile subscriptions and 25.85 percent in fixed connections in Venezuela from 2009.

According to the study, sponsored by Cisco and conducted by the independent firm IDC, the growth in broadband can be attributed mainly to the development of the mobile segment, which has been considerably affected by the accelerated use of social networks and the high volume of traffic from smart devices.

According to the study, 184,898 mobile subscriptions were added in 2010, which represents a growth of 29.6 percent from the previous year. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are the preferred sites of Venezuelans. (As of December 2010, mobile subscriptions totaled 809,153.)

A total of 2,364,897 broadband connections were reported in Venezuela during the last year, and 1,555,744 correspond to the fixed segment, which represents a growth of 25.85 percent over the last study.

With the new subscriptions, the broadband penetration in Venezuela has reached 5.57 connections per 100 inhabitants. This percentage is still much lower than in countries like Brazil (7.11 percent), Chile (10.78 percent), Argentina (11.71 percent) and Uruguay (12.32 percent). However, Venezuela is at a higher penetration level than countries like Peru (3.47 percent) and is very close to Colombia (5.68 percent).  

Highlights:

• The broadband market is maintaining a constant growth of more than 25 percent annually.
• There are 42 million broadband connections in Latin America as of December 2010, and 5.57 percent of those are in Venezuela.
• Of fixed broadband connections, 19 percent have speeds of 256 kilobits per second, 60 percent have speeds between 512 Kbps and 1 megabit per second, and 21 percent have speeds higher than 1 Mbps.
• Venezuela has experienced exceptional growth in social networking, with more than 7 million residents at Twitter.
• Operators have experienced a high volume of mobile data traffic, 15 percent to 20 percent of which is generated from the inquiries and updates in Facebook.
• One-third (33 percent) of the fixed broadband connections are in Caracas, with the rest (67 percent) elsewhere in the country.  

Supporting Quotes:

"High speed networks have become a fundamental part of the basic infrastructure of any country because they facilitate growth and contribute to its economic development.  Broadband networks offer a unique and profitable opportunity to increase productivity and facilitate the processes of regional integration, apart from overcoming physical and geographical restrictions in bringing education and health to citizens," said Enrique Mareque, general manager, Cisco Venezuela. 

"The country has been able to maintain a constant growth in its broadband connections, even in the middle of the global economic crisis. However, we cannot ignore the fact that countries with a higher penetration in Latin America are also growing, which exacerbates the digital gap. It is necessary to make efforts, both public and private, to bring high-speed networks to everyone, especially in rural populations," Mareque explained.

"Although connections with speeds of 1 megabit per second are growing, we must look for ways to make such connections available to more subscribers. The most important benefits of broadband come from the use of collaboration tools like video, blogs and social networks, which need higher speeds," said Mareque.

About the Cisco Broadband Barometer  

Cisco Broadband Barometer is an initiative to promote and encourage the accelerated growth of broadband connections in Latin America. It sets goals regarding the number of connections, establishes a periodical measurement of progress, publishes these results, and develops strategies with service providers and governments.

Currently, the Cisco Barometer measures broadband growth in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Peru and Uruguay. The Barometer has been supported in each case by the national government.

About Cisco 

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

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