Puerto Rico Communications 2022, CIA World Factbook

total subscriptions: 711,512 (2020 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 25 (2020 est.)

Telephones - mobile cellular

total subscriptions: 3,483,570 (2020 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 122 (2020 est.)

Telecommunication systems

general assessment: Puerto Rico has a small telecom market which in recent years has been deeply affected by a combination of economic mismanagement and natural disasters, including two hurricanes which landed in late 2017 and an earthquake which struck in January 2020; these disasters caused considerable destruction of telecom infrastructure, which in turn led to a marked decline in the number of subscribers for all services; compounding these difficulties have been a long-term economic downturn which encouraged many people not to resume telecom services after these were restored; after some delay, the FCC in late 2019 issued an order relating to the release of funds to help rebuild telecom infrastructure; although Puerto Rico is a US territory it lags well behind the mainland US states in terms of fixed-line and broadband services; this is partly due to high unemployment rates (and consequently low disposable income) and poor telecoms investment in a market; the mobile market has been impacted by several mergers and acquisitions over the last few years; the activities of large multinational telcos continue to impact the Puerto Rican market; operators have secured spectrum in the 600MHz and 3.5GHz bands, thus enabling them to expand the reach of LTE services and launch services based on 5G; the growing number of submarine cables landing in Puerto Rico is helping to drive down the cost of telecom services, creating a demand for streaming content from abroad; the uptake of cloud-based applications for both business and individuals is also creating a heightened demand for affordable services (2021)

domestic: digital telephone system; mobile-cellular services; fixed-line nearly 25 per 100 and mobile-cellular nearly 122 per 100 persons (2020)

international: country code - 1-787, 939; landing points for the GTMO-PR, AMX-1, BRUSA, GCN, PCCS, SAm-1, Southern Caribbean Fiber, Americas-II, Antillas, ARCOS, SMPR-1, and Taino-Carib submarine cables providing connectivity to the mainland US, Caribbean, Central and South America; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (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

more than 30 TV stations operating; cable TV subscription services are available; roughly 125 radio stations

Internet country code

.pr

Internet users

total: 2,559,600 (2020 est.)

percent of population: 78% (2020 est.)

Broadband - fixed subscriptions

total: 671,284 (2020 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 24 (2020 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding Puerto Rico 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 Puerto Rico 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Puerto Rico 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.