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Access in Brazil

Jeremiah P. Spence & Laura A. Q. Barbosa, May 2001



Introduction

Brazil is the largest country in South America, with a population of 173 million (2000). The population is a cultural-ethnic mix of indigenous, African black, colonial Portuguese, immigrant Europeans & Japanese. The Brazilian population is over 80% urban, and there is a very distinct economic divide. The top 5% of the population control well over 50% of the national economy. The main language spoken in Brazil is Brazilian Portuguese. There are also significant pockets of German, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, and a variety of indigenous languages spoken in the country. The economy of Brazil is the eighth largest in the world and is a diversified mix of agriculture, industry, export, and tourism.


The Digital Divide in Brazil

This paper will attempt to identify the barriers to access to the Internet, which play a part in the growing digital divide in Brazil. The existing barriers can be easily broken down into four major sections. The first major barrier that we will examine is an infrastructure-based issue. If you have large tracts of the country that have no access to electricity or phone lines then it is quite difficult to imagine that these areas will have exposure to the Internet. The second barrier is very difficult to resolve, it is a systemic barrier that exists in the economic situation of the country. This barrier creates a basic divide between the haves and the haves-nots that defines the Internet usage patterns of the populace of the country. The third major barrier is in the area of societal issues. There are major problems in Brazil with literacy and education. The fourth major area we will examine is in the Internet usage-adoption patterns. We will discuss in the section how the upper 15% of the population seems to be rapidly accepting the Internet and integrating it in to their lifestyle, but the rest of the population faces large economic, social, and infrastructure barriers to gain access to the Internet.

The current divide in access mirrors the country's economic division. The situation in Brazil is quite distinct. Among the top 15% of the population there is a very rapid penetration of Internet usage (31.7% in 2001), as displayed in table 1.[i] However, the rates of penetration among the general population of Brazil are sparse (4.8% in 2001), as illustrated in table 2.[ii]

As you can see in the following table 3, the rate of PC penetration is Brazil is remarkably low, which of course a clear reflection of the national economic situation which does not allow the vast majority of the population sufficient disposable income to purchase a personal computer.[iii]


Telecommunication Infrastructure

The World Bank's World Development Report 2000/2001 gives a very clear insight into the lack of infrastructure in the majority of rural Brazil. According to Table 19, as of 1998, only 12 Brazilians in a 100 have a telephone, and only 4.7 Brazilians in a 100 have a mobile phone. These numbers indicate that only a minute fraction of the populace has access to the telecom infrastructure nationwide. The situation with computers is similar. Only 2 in 100 have a computer.

There has been an improvement a slight improvement in the situation since the completion of the telecom privatization process. The new telecom structure has allowed greater access to telephone lines, and the number of mobile phones in the hands of Brazilians has exploded.


Economic Issues

The economic situation in Brazil is a profound schism between the haves and the have-nots. Despite the fact that Brazil has the eighth largest economy in the world, approximately 32% of the rural population lives below the poverty line. (WDR - 00/01 - Table 4) Another clear indicator shows that the top 20% of the population controls more than 63% of the nation's wealth. This means that 80% of the Brazilian population has access to less that 40% of the nation's wealth. (WDR - 00/01 - Table 5)

This translates to a very clear economic barrier for the poorer 80% of the population to access the Internet. This barrier cannot be overcome easily. It is related to uneven economic growth, regional inequities within Brazil, urban/rural divisions, and lack of access to educational, social, financial and other resources for much of the population


Social Issues

In the arena of social issues the barriers to Internet access are clear and profound. Brazil maintains only a 15% adult literacy rate (WDR - 00/01 - Table 2), and while close to 97% of the population enrolls in primary school only 66% of the population enrolls in secondary school. (WDR - 00/01 - Table 6)

It is clear that until Brazil improves its adult literacy rate beyond 15%, it will close to impossible to move beyond this class ceiling in Internet access. One can see a clear parallel between the adult literacy rates and rates of penetration of internet access in the top 15% of the population compared to the rates of penetration in the general population. (see tables 1 & 2)


Internet Usage and Adoption Patterns

In September 2000, the most recent version of the IBOPE media use report was published, which outlined the current usage and adoption rates in the nine major metropolitan areas in Brazil. Only 19% of the urban population has access to the Internet via a computer, and 48% of these users belong to class A & B. The interesting change was that the research data indicated that 1.9 million Brazilians intended to purchase a mobile phone that allowed WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) to the Internet, and even more interesting is that the distribution of those accessing WAP across the social classes is close to even. Of those who have access to WAP 31% belong to classes A & B, 35% in class C, and 34% in classes D & E.[iv]

This shift shows that there may be a way to move beyond some of the major barriers to Internet access. The other major pattern in the research showed that of classes A&B, 72% of those are male. This would indicate that the vast majority of affluent women have yet to discover the Internet.


Conclusion

Brazil has vast barriers to accessing the Internet. These barriers include literacy, education, economic purchasing power, and infrastructure (telephone lines, etc.). However, we have seen that there are definite opportunities to overcome some of these barriers. We will explore some of these opportunities in subsequent papers in this series.


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[i] Elkin, Noah. "Making Low-Cost Internet Access a Reality in Brazil." Emarketer.
http://www.emarketer.com/analysis/elatin_america/20010209_lowcost.html. 9 February 2001.
[ii] ibid.
[iii] ibid.
[iv] IBOPE. "8ª edição mostrava que 4,7 milhões de consumidores queriam acessar a Internet por computador".
http://www.ibope.com.br/digital/produtos/internetpop/8pop.htm. September 2000.


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