Mobile communications and Internet in Panama

Internet speed for cell phones and fixed network

With an average download speed of 123.65 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Panama ranks 25th in an international comparison. The upload rate of only 14.73 Mbit/second was significantly lower (110th place).
In mobile internet, i.e., on tablets and smartphones, Panama comes 115th with a download speed of 17.39 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 13 Mbit was enough for 47th place.

The Speedtest Global Index published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in April 2023 from 180 countries.

Mobile phone rates in Panama

Every year, the International Telecommunication Union calculates for many countries what a mobile phone contract costs to use. A monthly budget averaging US$ 21.80 was calculated Panama in 2021. This is about the same value as in the previous year.

The ITU refers to the costs for monthly use and includes 140 telephony minutes, 70 text messages and a data transfer of 2 GBytes. The transfer speed should be the minimum of a 3G connection, i.e. at least UMTS, which is already outdated in many parts of the world. 2 GBytes do not sound much. However, this is already quite a high consumption in a worldwide comparison. If one does not take a fixed amount in US dollars, but converts it to the economic output per inhabitant, a user in Panama spends 2.1% of his gross national income on mobile telephony. Worldwide, this rate is around 6.6 percent.

In the USA, the monthly cost was around $38.10.

Lack of network coverage with 5G

A modern 5G network does not yet exist in Panama (as of 2021). The penetration rate of 4G, i.e., mobile communications with at least LTE speed, was recently 84 percent. In other words, 696,202.72 people in the country had to make do with a maximum Internet speed of the outdated UMTS standard (or even less).

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 Panama from 1990 - 2021

Broadband internet in Panama 2001 - 2021

Panama is lagging behind in the expansion of broadband internet connections. Around 68 percent of all residents have access to the internet. Around 14 percent have their own fast internet connection, which is at least faster than the former ISDN (more than 256 kbit/s). All fixed connections via DSL, cable or satellite were counted here, but not those connected to the internet via mobile communications.

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