
Telecommunication in Nicaragua
Compared to the United States, Nicaragua is massively lagging behind in the development of telecommunications. Under the country code +505, there were a total of 6.44 million connections in 2021. Among them were 6.23 million mobile phones, which corresponds to an average of 0.91 per person. In the US, this figure is 1.1 mobile phones per person.With about 296,068 webhosts, Nicaragua is below the world's average by population. At the end of 2020, 610 of these, or about 0 percent, were secured with SSL or comparable encryption.
Back to overview: Nicaragua
Development of telephone and internet connections
With an average download speed of 41.86 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Nicaragua ranks 95th in an international comparison. The upload rate of only 16.34 Mbit/second was significantly lower (101st place).In mobile internet, i.e., on tablets and smartphones, Nicaragua comes 105th with a download speed of 18.25 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 11 Mbit was enough for 74th place.
The Speedtest Global Index published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in December 2022 from 178 countries.
The following diagrams show the development of the various telephone and internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100 percent mean that, on average, every inhabitant has more than one connection.
Access to the internet in Nicaragua from 1990 - 2020
Broadband internet in Nicaragua 2000 - 2021

Landlines 1990 - 2021
Mobile phones 1990 - 2021
Distribution in 2021 | Nicaragua Total | Nicaragua percent | USA Total | USA percent |
---|---|---|---|---|
Broadband users | 299,930.00 | 4.38 % | 127.03 m | 38.27 % |
Landlines | 207,577.00 | 3.03 % | 97.11 m | 29.26 % |
Mobile cellulars | 6.23 m | 91.00 % | 361.62 m | 108.96 % |