INTERNET USERS REPORT WIP COLOMBIA 2007

INTERNET USERS REPORT WIP COLOMBIA 2007 World Internet Project Colombia 2007 V 2.0.0 September 2007 Centro de Investigación de las Telecomunicaciones CINTEL Avenida Calle 100 No. 19-61 Piso 8º, Tel: 6353538 Fax: 6353338 Bogotá D.C. Colombia South America

CONTENT INTRODUCTION 3 COLOMBIA - BASIC DEMOGRAPHICS 4 THE COLOMBIAN ECONOMY 6 IS/ICT POLICY IN COLOMBIA 8 IS/ICT PROGRESSION AND FIGURES IN COLOMBIA 10 REFERENCES 13 2

Introduction This document presents a summary of the main facts regarding geography, economy, basic telecommunication infrastructure and information and communication use in Colombia. 3

Colombia - Basic Demographics Colombia has an extension of 1,141,748 sq. km. Its political division includes 32 departamentos (one of them detached form the continent, the islands that make up the Sand Andrés and Providencia archipelago) that comprise 1,098 municipios. Figure 1. Colombia in South America COLOMBIA VENEZUELA GUYANA SURINAME FRENCH GUIANA NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN ECUADOR PERU BRAZIL BOLIVIA SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN PARAGUAY URUGUAY CHILE ARGENTINA SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN Failand Islands (Malvines) Source: CINTEL 4

Location: Land boundaries: Table 1. Characteristics of Colombia Geography Northern South America, bordering the Caribbean Sea, between Panama and Venezuela, and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Ecuador and Panama border countries: Brazil 1,644 km, Ecuador 590 km, Panama 225 km, Peru 1,800 km, Venezuela 2,050 km Coastline: 3,208 km (Caribbean Sea 1,760 km, North Pacific Ocean 1,448 km) Climate: Natural resources: tropical along coast and eastern plains; cooler in highlands petroleum, natural gas, coal, iron ore, nickel, gold, copper, emeralds, hydropower People Population: 42,888,592 (June 2005 - Census 2005) Nationality: noun: Colombian(s) adjective: Colombian Religions: Roman Catholic 90%, other 10% Languages: Government type: Capital: Legal system: Spanish Government republic; executive branch dominates government structure name: Bogota based on Spanish law; a new criminal code modeled after US procedures was enacted into law in 2004 and is gradually being implemented; judicial review of executive and legislative acts Source: DANE 1 According to the 2005 General Census carried out by DANE, the population is mostly urban (75%) and women amount to 51.2%. Minor ethnic groups are conformed by natives (3.4%), afrocolombian (10.6%) and rom (0.001%). Literacy rate 2 is 88.3% with higher incidence in urban areas (91.5%) than in rural ones (78.2%). On the other hand, 10,731,044 households live in 10,537,735 housing units 3. 66.7% households are made up of four or less people (the average size has reduced from 5.2 persons in 1985 to 3.9 in 2005). 1 National Department of Statistic. 2 2005 Census literacy rate includes people older than five years of age. 3 According to DANE, households and housing units are defined as follows: - Housing unit (Unidad de vivienda): an independent, separate space inhabited or destined to be inhabited by one or more persons. - Household (Hogar particular): A person or group of persons (relatives or not) that abide and live in a housing unit or a part of it and generally share at least one meal. 5

The Colombian economy 2006 was an encouraging year for the Colombian economy as long as it allowed the consolidation of a continued four-year 4% annual average growth. In fact, the positive trend that has followed the tremendous 1997-2000 downturn (See Figure 2) indicates that consumers and producers confidence has recovered, partly as a result of the improving safety conditions that the country has experienced lately. Figure 2. 1997-2006 Evolution of Colombian GNP 4 constant 1994 million pesos 100.000.000 90.000.000 80.000.000 70.000.000 60.000.000 50.000.000 40.000.000 30.000.000 20.000.000 10.000.000 8,00% 6,00% 4,00% 2,00% 0,00% -2,00% -4,00% 0 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006-6,00% GNP 73.985.307 74.427.851 71.183.263 73.280.593 74.496.708 76.179.444 79.236.765 83.163.646 87.103.864 93.018.196 % Growth 3,29% 0,60% -4,36% 2,95% 1,66% 2,26% 4,01% 4,96% 4,74% 6,79% Source: DANE As seen form the demand perspective, 2006 economic growth is explained by the 26.89% increase of gross formation of capital, the 7.85% exports upsurge due to higher international oil and oil derivatives prices, and the 5.63% expansion of final consumption that led a 9.88% internal demand increase. Table 2. GNP percentage growth according to demand Item 2003 2004 2005 2006 Final Demand 4.93 5.98 8.48 9.55 Final Consumption 2.06 3.72 4.87 5.63 Gross Capital Formation 21.58 13.32 28.96 26.89 Exports 4.56 9.24 4.65 7.85 Source: DANE 4 Constant 1994 million Colombian pesos series smoothed without illicit activities. 6

Regarding FDI in 2006, it skyrocketed (US$ 6.295 millions) over the target set to US$ 6.000 millions. The sector with the greatest share was mining (31.9%) (See Figure 3). Now, Banco de la República 5, forecasts for 2007 are rather optimistic. In fact, growth expectations are positive (demand and supply perspectives) and GNP growth rate figures range form 4.9 to 5.7%, according to national experts. Figure 3. Changes in FDI in Colombia 12.000 10.000 250% 200% USD Millions 8.000 6.000 4.000 2.000 150% 100% 50% 0% Growth 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006-50% Net FDI Percentual Growth Source: Banco de la República, Proexport Some indicators of the Colombian economy are shown in Table 3. Currency (code): GDP - real growth rate: GDP - per capita (PPP): Inflation rate (consumer prices): Exchange rates: Table 3. Colombian economy Colombian peso (COP) 6.8% (2006) $8,600 (2006) 4.3% (2006) Colombian pesos per US dollar - 2,358.6 (2006), 2,320.75 (2005), 2,628.61 (2004), 2,877.65 (2003), 2,504.24 (2002) Source: CINTEL DANE 5 Is a Central Bank of Colombia, this is the institution that issues and administrates legal currency and exercises the function of banker of banks. Furthermore, it controls the country s monetary system (currency), credit system (interest rates) and foreign exchange system (foreign exchange rates). 7

IS/ICT Policy in Colombia Telecommunication policy, regulation and control in Colombia are a responsibility of the Ministry of Telecommunications, which is the top ICT policy institution; the National Commission for the Regulation of Telecommunications (CRT) is the technical entity in charge of the regulation of operators and the definition of tariffs when necessary. Also the Public Utilities Authority (Superintendencia de Servicios Públicos Domiciliarios SSPD), the Industry and Commerce Authority (Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio SIC) and the Television National Commission (Comisión Nacional de Televisión - CNTV) play key roles in the sector. The global Colombian State Policy related to IS/ICT is called Agenda de Conectividad: C@mino a la Sociedad del Conocimiento (Connectivity Agenda: The Pathway to the Society of Knowledge). It was approved by the Consejo Nacional de Política Económica y Social (Conpes) through Document 3072 issued on February 9, 2000, and officially passed on March 14 of the same year. Originally, it was meant to be directly coordinated by the President s Office (Presidencia de la República, 2000), although some changes in the leading role of the government seem to have lessened the importance of the policy itself and its effective accomplishments 6. The main objective of the Agenda de Conectividad is to widen and to make ICT use more democratic in order to grant the access to knowledge, to facilitate the participation of citizens in the control of public affairs, and to boost the competitiveness of the manufacturing and service sectors of the Colombian economy (DANE, 2003). The development of the Agenda de Conectividad is based on actions addressed to three different sectors: the community, the productive sector, the State. In the first case, regarding the community, the goal is to foster the use of ICT in order to improve quality standards by providing equitable access to education, job, justice, culture and leisure opportunities. Concerning the productive sector, the policy aims at promoting the use of ICT to support growth, greater competitiveness and access to markets, and as a factor to complement the job generation policy. 6 Criticism on such a lost leadership has been recently expressed by the most influential Colombian journal in these terms: It is by no means surprising that, according to the sixth GITR, Colombia has descended form the 62 nd to the 64 th place among 122 countries. a key element that accounts for this is the lack of leadership in the ICT area. ICT has usually been the responsibility of a low-rank small office of the Ministry of Communications. In fact, the strongest effort to boost ICT initiatives was undertaken under President Pastrana s term, when the Agenda de Conectividad was created and the Program Director reported directly to the President. (El Tiempo, 2007) 8

Finally, as for the State, the policy is meant to provide connectivity to facilitate the management of government institutions and the services that are to be granted to the citizens. The achievement of these objectives has been articulated to the fulfillment of six strategies that, in turn, include different programs that support the activities to be developed. The strategies are: Access to infrastructure: It intends to strengthen the country s telecommunications infrastructure and supply lower cost access to ICT for Colombian citizens 7. Education and training: It seeks to broaden the access to information as an educational tool to train the citizens to use information, to boost the creation of human resources specialized in ICT, and to make the population aware of ICT importance 8. On-line enterprises: It is intended to make Colombian enterprises increase their productivity and competitiveness by using ICT and to boost up e-commerce in all sectors 9. Promotion of the information industry: Its main goal is to establish an appropriate environment to promote the development of such an industry 10. Generation of contents: It intends to support the efforts of the national industry to promulgate the national cultural patrimony 11. 7 Programs included are: Compartel, Computadores para Educar, Centros de acceso a Internet en unidades militares, Aulas de Bilingüismo e Informática, Tarifas de Internet, Medición de las Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación, Proceso de Licenciamiento de PCS, LMDS y Ley de Telecomunicaciones. 8 It comprises two mechanisms: implementation of infrastructure in educational communities and infrastructure usage training. These mechanisms include training projects, access strategies, and ability construction and improvement. The education and training strategy is made up by three components: formal education, non-formal education and a communication strategy. 9 Initiatives comprise an e-commerce law (Ley 527, 1999), Decree 1747, 2000, (regulation of some e-commerce law aspects as certification institutions, certifications and digital signatures), Resolution 26930 (2000) by the Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio on the standards of authorization and operation of certifying and surveillance institutions, a program to boost e-commerce among enterprises, the creation of the Fondo Colombiano de Modernización y Desarrollo Tecnológico de las micro, medianas y pequeñas empresas (FOMIPYME) in 2001. 10 Some developments include the Sistema de Información de la Infraestructura Nacional de Tecnologías de la Información (SIINTI) and a study on zonas francas tecnológicas aimed at generating new jobs and firm development using ICT along with the establishment of enterprise incubators, software and contents firms, call and contact centers, joint venture funds and ICT training institutions. There is also a Strategy to promote the IT industry in Colombia. 11 Initiatives include a Bank of Best Projects from different scientific disciplines, the Observatorio Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología de Colciencias, a program for the Digitalization of the National Cutural Patrimony, the National Plan for the Management of Collections (a project of the National Network of Museums), an Integral System of Health Information, a National University and Library Network, and three sectoral websites: Agriculture, Environment, Health. 9

e-government: It seeks to improve the functioning and efficiency of public institutions to provide a better service to the citizens and to be more transparent by using ICT 12. IS/ICT progression and figures in Colombia 13 Computers A first attempt to measure the advancements and diagnose the remaining problems concerning the IS/ICT policy was made by the Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE) in 2003 when a model for the measurement of ICT (Modelo de medición de las Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones -TIC- en Colombia) was built and applied. The most relevant results of DANE (2003) study indicated that there existed 1,766,000 computers, 93.4% of them were operative and 44.7% were connected to Internet. Computer use was greater in higher education (100%), the public sector (93.4%) and the manufacturing industry (76.6%). Among formal education institutions, only 27.7% owned computers and 12.8% of the existing machines were out of service. As for households, only 18.2% families in the biggest 13 cities possessed a computer, while 93.9% of the 933,000 existing machines were operative and 53.8% of functioning computers were connected to Internet. Concerning the use of operational systems, Microsoft Windows 95/98 (65.8%) and Windows 2.000 (20.4%) were the most widely used, while Windows NT (5.7%) was employed for the management of networks. Table 4 shows some information about the telecommunications services in Colombia. 12 The Plan de Acción (Directiva Presidencial No. 02, August 28, 2000) is divided into three phases: statement of public information, offer of on-line services (citizens-state interaction), on-line contracting processes. Other initiatives include access to the websites of Colombian State Institutions and to a search engine that leads to State Institutions websites. 13 A caveat is due here regarding the figures reported. So far, no institution has systematically gathered extensive time series data on IS/ICT variables. In fact, as can be deduced from the figures and sources included here, inquiries and questionnaires applied vary somewhat as to their methodology and sampling, addressees, coverage, and information requested. Yet, these data are the only input available to determine current baseline indicators in order to follow up their future evolution. 10

Table 4. Telecommunications in Colombia 2006 Telephones - main lines in use: Telephones - mobile cellular: Internet users: (broadband) 7.682.665 million 29.762.715 million 628.077 million Source: CINTEL Internet users in Colombia according to type of access is shown in Figure 4. Figure 4. Internet users in Colombia according to type of access (in thousands) 23.179 20.282 260.138 324.478 Cable xdsl WiMax Others Source: CINTEL The follow figure shows the total Internet users and penetration. Figure 5. Internet users and penetration 8 7 15,39% 18% 16% Users (thousands) 6 5 4 3 4,90% 7,43% 9,16% 11,05% 14% 12% 10% 8% 6% Penetration 2 4% 1 2% 0 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 0% Users Penetration Source: CRT, DANE, Calculations by CINTEL 11

The Subscription TV is based on different technologies (See Table 5). Table 5. Distribution of the users according to the reception technology of the service Level of standar of living Broadcasting TV Satelite Cable Communitarian Parabolic Doesn t have TV 1 60,3% 0,0% 16,0% 1,1% 6,6% 15,9% 2 56,5% 0,2% 29,9% 1,2% 6,3% 5,9% 3 44,3% 0,5% 43,9% 0,7% 7,8% 2,8% 4 26,8% 1,2% 66,8% 0,1% 4,0% 1,1% 5 19,3% 2,1% 75,5% 0,0% 2,2% 0,8% 6 11,4% 8,1% 78,9% 0,0% 0,5% 1,1% Source: CNTV 14. 14 National Commission of Television (Comisión Nacional de Televisión). 12

References Banco de la República (2006) Informe sobre inflación. Bogotá, diciembre. CID-UN & Ministerio de Desarrollo Económico (2000) Una política pública para el comercio interno de Colombia. Bogotá. CINTEL (2006) Estudio del sector de las telecomunicaciones en Colombia 2006. Bogotá. CRT (2001) Infraestructura de Internet en Colombia Año 2000. Informe final de conectividad nacional. Bogotá. CRT (2002) El sector de las telecomunicaciones en Colombia 1998-2001. Bogotá. CRT (2006) Informe semestral - Internet. Bogotá, junio. CRT & Centro Nacional de Consultoría (2006) Medición de factores multiplicadores para el cálculo de usuarios de Internet en Colombia. Bogotá. DANE (2003) Modelo de la medición de las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones. Bogotá. DANE (2005) General Census. Bogotá. DNP & Presidencia de la República (2005) 2019 Visión Colombia II Centenario. Bogotá. ITU (2005) Measuring digital opportunity - WSIS Thematic Meeting on Multi- Stakeholder Partnerships for Bridging the Digital Divide, Document: BDB- WSIS/06, Seoul. Presidencia de la República (2000) Directiva Presidencial No. 02, Gobierno en Línea. Bogotá, Agosto 28. Telefónica (2004) Sociedad de la Información España 2004. Madrid. Tiempo, El (2007) Quedados en tecnología Editorial, 13 de abril. World Economic Forum & INSEAD (Various years) Network Readiness Index. 13