Nicaragua Communications - 2024

Telephones - fixed lines

total subscriptions: 215,729 (2022 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 3 (2021 est.)

Telephones - mobile cellular

total subscriptions: 6,233,864 (2021 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 91 (2021 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: fixed-line teledensity is 3 per 100 persons; mobile-cellular telephone subscribership is 91 per 100 persons (2021)

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)

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: 3.933 million (2021 est.)

percent of population: 57% (2021 est.)

Broadband - fixed subscriptions

total: 290,351 (2020 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 4 (2020 est.)