Nicaragua Communications - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Telephones - fixed lines

total subscriptions: 210,981 (2020 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 3 (2020 est.)

Telephones - mobile cellular

total subscriptions: 5,976,479 (2020 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 90 (2020 est.)

Telecommunication systems

general assessment: Nicaragua’s telecoms market has mirrored the country’s poor economic achievements, with fixed-line teledensity and mobile penetration also being the lowest in Central America; the fixed line broadband market remains nascent, with population penetration below 4%; most internet users are concentrated in the largest cities, given that rural and marginal areas lack access to the most basic telecom infrastructure; internet cafés provide public access to internet and email services, but these also tend to be restricted to the larger population centers; to address poor infrastructure, the World Bank has funded a project aimed at improving connectivity via a national fiber broadband network; there are separate schemes to improve broadband in eastern regions and provide links to Caribbean submarine cables; the number of mobile subscribers overtook the number of fixed lines in early 2002, and the mobile sector now accounts for most lines in service (2021)

domestic: since privatization, access to fixed-line and mobile-cellular services has improved; fixed-line teledensity roughly 3 per 100 persons; mobile-cellular telephone subscribership has increased to roughly 90 per 100 persons (2020)

international: country code - 505; landing point for the ARCOS fiber-optic submarine cable which provides connectivity to South and Central America, parts of the Caribbean, and the US; satellite earth stations - 1 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region) and 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) (2019)

note: the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a significant impact on production and supply chains globally; since 2020, some aspects of the telecom sector have experienced a downturn, particularly in mobile device production; progress toward 5G implementation has resumed, as well as upgrades to infrastructure; consumer spending on telecom services has increased due to the surge in demand for capacity and bandwidth; the crucial nature of telecom services as a tool for work and school from home is still evident, and the spike in this area has seen growth opportunities for development of new tools and increased services

Broadcast media

multiple terrestrial TV stations, supplemented by cable TV in most urban areas; nearly all are government-owned or affiliated; more than 300 radio stations, both government-affiliated and privately owned (2019)

Internet country code

.ni

Internet users

total: 2,981,049 (2020 est.)

percent of population: 45% (2020 est.)

Broadband - fixed subscriptions

total: 290,351 (2020 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 4 (2020 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding Nicaragua on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Nicaragua 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Nicaragua 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.