SANTIAGO, Chile, May 5, 2010 - Cisco announced today that Chile closed the year 2009 with a broadband penetration of 10.3 percent, a figure that positions the country in first place in Latin America. During the year, Chile registered a growth of 18 percent and saw 262,000 new broadband connections. This increase was reported in the most recent version of the Cisco® Broadband Barometer, a study conducted by IDC, which found that in December the country had more than 1.7 million broadband Internet connections.

Chile has achieved a home broadband penetration of 33.6 percent, bringing the country closer to the goal of 50 percent, set in collaboration with Cisco. This level is considered necessary to help propel the economic development of the country as well as to improve citizens' quality of life.

Highlights

• At the end of last year, Chile reached 1,724,528 broadband connections, representing an increase of 18 percent between December 2008 and December 2009.
• Most (86 percent) of the connections are concentrated in the residential segment. Customers are attracted by the availability of multiple services, including telephony, Internet and cable television, as well as peer-to-peer services. In the last year, this growth has also been stimulated by prepaid services.   
• More than a third (39 percent) of the connections in the country exceed speeds of 1 megabit per second.
• In terms of mobile broadband, the study indicated that between June and December 2009, the number of connections increased by 45.6 percent and now surpasses 575,000. This conforms to the results of the Cisco Visual Networking Index, which forecasts that by the year 2014, more than 400 million Internet users worldwide may be able to access the network primarily through a mobile connection, and that mobile traffic will grow 39 times from 2009 to 2014, due to the number and variety of devices suitable for this kind of connectivity.
• In spite of being a year of economic crisis, 2009 saw broadband connectivity grow, due in part to the adoption of prepaid services. It is expected that with the optimization of the network, broadband will continue to reap the benefits of cost reductions and productivity improvements.

About the Cisco Broadband Barometer

• The Cisco Broadband Barometer was created in 2002 to promote the growth of broadband connections in Chile, which at that time numbered 186,000. The goal proposed to the country was 1 million connections by 2010, the year of Chile's bicentenary; later, the goal was revised to 1.5 million.

Supporting Quotes

• Nicolás Chiappara, country manager, Cisco Chile

"During the eight years of the Cisco Broadband Barometer, we have seen how the Internet and broadband networks have become part of the infrastructure that supports vital interactions in our society. We have witnessed broadband's advancement in the technological and social priorities of the country. Today it is one of the most critical factors in the growth of Chile, and it plays a fundamental role in its development".