Internet access in Brazil has been stagnant since 2020 – 05/16/2023 – Tech

Internet access in Brazil reached a ceiling in 2020, with 83% of households connected, when the country adopted social isolation measures to prevent the spread of Covid. In 2021, the level of connectivity fluctuated negatively to 81%, and, in 2022, to 80%. The data are from the TIC Domicílios survey, carried out by Nic.br (Dot BR Information and Coordination Nucleus).

The movement registered by the survey between 2021 and 2022 does not represent a drop, as it is within the 1% margin of error for the question, says the coordinator of TIC Domicílios Fabio Storino. Even so, he indicates that access to networks, at the very least, stopped growing after five straight years of growth between 2015 and 2017.

Storino points out that the survey for 2020, due to the pandemic, was done over the phone and with a reduced questionnaire —data are released in the first half of the following year. The collection of ICT Households is done in person under normal conditions. The survey works with a confidence level of 95%,

There are 149 million people with access and 36 million people without internet in the country: 29 million are in urban areas, 18 million in the Southeast region, and 10 million in the Northeast. The group also includes people who studied up to elementary school (29 million), blacks and browns (21 million) and classes D and E (19 million).

These numbers show that exclusion from networks is linked to poverty and inequality, according to Storino. “It’s not just a question of technology availability.”

On the other hand, rural areas have more precarious network infrastructure, which indicates the permanence of the challenge of universalizing coverage, according to the coordinator of TIC Domicílios.

From the sample of 20,688 respondents, 28% of households disconnected from the internet do not have access because of the price. 26% claim lack of ability, 16% lack of interest, and 7% lack of need.

When considering only class A, the “lack of interest” jumps to 90%. The “lack of skill” increases when the cut is made in the age group of 35 to 44 years, rising to 45%.

The manager of Cetic.br (Regional Center of Studies for the Development of the Information Society), Alexandre Barbosa, says that the data from TIC Domicílios serves to subsidize the government with data for the promotion of intersectoral policies to change this scenario. Cetic.br is part of Nic.br, the entity responsible for registering websites on the Brazilian internet.

Among users, 92 million (62%) access the internet only via cell phone. The device is used by 99% of people connected to networks. The second most common means of access is television (55%), followed by the computer (38%).

TIC Domicílios shows that people with access only via smartphone do worse in the 12 skill parameters considered by the survey. Among those who use computers and cell phones, for example, 69% have adopted security measures to protect devices and accounts, against 33% of those who only use mobile devices.

For the methodology of ICT Households, tablets count as a computer.

Internet use only via cell phone predominates among women (64% against 59% among men), among blacks (63%) and browns (67% against 54% among whites), and among those with incomes below R$ 2,900 ( 84%) —DE class.

According to research coordinator Fabio Storino, the cell phone limits the activities possible on the internet. The number of people who create spreadsheets or programs is smaller among exclusive cell phone users.

“Public policies, therefore, need to respond to a double objective: to guarantee a connectivity that is, at the same time, universal and meaningful”, says Storino.

Of the 149 million internet users in the national territory, 142 million connect every day, or almost every day — with prevalence in classes A (93%) and B (91%) and in smaller proportions in C (81%) and DE (60%).

The share of people who used the internet to carry out school activities also dropped compared to 2020, when it stood at 45%. In 2022, this was 40%, in the same range as the 41% registered in 2019, before the health crisis.