The Dominican Republic rises eight places in the Latin American and Caribbean ranking of the ICT Development Index
With the result obtained, the country is located in higher positions than countries in the region such as Panama, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador
SANTO DOMINGO. - Dominican Republic ha accomplished un remarkable progress in the field of Information and Communications Technology (TIC). According to the results of the 2023 edition of the Information and Communication Technologies Development Index, published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the country has climbed eight positions in the ranking of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The country obtained a result of 75 out of 100 points in the measurement, placing itself in the 100th place worldwide, and in the place 15 of the 33 economies of Latin America and the Caribbean. “This means a significant improvement in the country's positioning, especially in the region, going from 107th to 100th place worldwide and from 23rd to 15th regional place comparing the current edition with that of 2017,” indicated Manuel Mendoza, Coordinator of the National Observatory. of Information and Communication Technologies (ONTIC-RD) which is based in the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC).
With this result, the Dominican Republic is located in positions higher than countries such as Panama, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, but below Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Chile, the best positioned in the region on the scale. in 32nd place.
The index, which has not been published since 2017, focuses on measuring how universal and significant connectivity is in each country. With 169 countries assessed around the world, this is the most important ITU index, providing a measure of ICT development in each country. It evaluates 10 indicators that include the percentage of individuals who use the internet, households with internet access, mobile broadband subscriptions, cost of services, traffic, mobile network coverage and ownership of mobile phones, among others.
In the 2023 evaluation, the aspects that were best valued for the country were the percentage of individuals using the internet, 85.2%, which places the country in 59th place in the world, and the percentage of the population with 4G coverage , 97.6%, leaving the country in position 74 in this indicator. The most important challenges are found in the percentage of households with internet access, 46.1%, 128th place in the world, and the percentage of individuals who own a mobile phone, 74.4%, 119th place in the world.
Regarding these results, INTEC professor Manuel Mendoza, also indicated that “although the objective of this Index is not to compare the ICT development of nations, it is a very valuable tool to identify aspects to improve in our country. Internet use has increased in the country since 2017 by very significant values, a little more than 10% of the population. But there are still important gaps such as the possession of smart devices or the internet in homes,” he emphasized.
“The population with lower incomes allocates a significantly higher percentage of their budgets to cover their telecommunications needs and in many cases the economic barrier limits access to them, especially in rural areas,” said the teacher.
The analysis of these statistics was presented by the National Observatory of Information and Communication Technologies (ONTIC-RD) at the meeting of its advisory council held in the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC). The data is published on the ITU portal ( https://www.itu.int/hub/publication/D-IND-ICT_MDD-2023-2/ ) and on the ONTIC-RD portal (https://ontic.org.do ).