El Salvador Communications - 2023

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Telephones - fixed lines

total subscriptions: 856,090 (2021 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 14 (2021 est.)

Telephones - mobile cellular

total subscriptions: 11,071,073 (2021 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 175 (2021 est.)

Telecommunication systems

general assessment: El Salvador is the smallest country in central America geographically, it has the fourth largest economy in the region; the country’s telecom sector has been restricted by poor infrastructure and unequal income distribution; there have been organizational delays which have slowed the development of telecom services; El Salvador’s fixed-line teledensity is substantially lower than the Latin American and Caribbean average; there has been a significant drop in the number of fixed lines since 2010, particularly in 2017, largely due to the substitution for mobile-only alternatives; about 94% of all telephony lines in the country are on mobile networks; mobile subscriptions are remarkably high considering El Salvador’s economic indicators, being about a third higher than average for Latin America and the Caribbean; the country was one of the last in the region to provide LTE services, mainly due to the inadequate provision of suitable spectrum; the multi-spectrum auction conducted at the end of 2019 has allowed MNOs to improve the reach and quality of their service offerings; El Salvador’s telecom legislation is one of the more liberal in Latin America, encouraging competition in most areas and permitting foreign investment; there are no regulations which promote wholesale broadband; the only effective cross-platform competition in the broadband market comes from the few cable operators; there has been some market consolidation in recent years (2021)

domestic: fixed-line services, roughly 14 per 100, mobile-cellular competition now at 175 subscribers per 100 inhabitants (2021)

international: country code - 503; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); connected to Central American Microwave System (2019)

Broadcast media

multiple privately owned national terrestrial TV networks, supplemented by cable TV networks that carry international channels; hundreds of commercial radio broadcast stations and two known government-owned radio broadcast station; transition to digital transmission to begin in 2018 along with adaptation of the Japanese-Brazilian Digital Standard (ISDB-T) (2022)

Internet country code

.sv

Internet users

total: 3.969 million (2021 est.)

percent of population: 63% (2021 est.)

Broadband - fixed subscriptions

total: 586,000 (2020 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 9 (2020 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding El Salvador on this page is re-published from the 2023 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of El Salvador 2023 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about El Salvador 2023 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.