Central America and El Salvador: The History of Telecommunication Services, Regulation, and the Digital Divide

This thesis examines how El Salvador has addressed the digital divide against its own aims and against those of other Central American countries-Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras.It does this by, first, exploring the historical development of telecommunication services in the region from the mid-1800s to 2013.Second, drawing on literature and data from each country, as well as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the World Bank, it evaluates how government policies have addressed the divide by examining the uptake of fixed-line, mobile phone, and internet services in the region.The evidence shows that sector liberalization in the region has yielded mixed results: while mobile phone services have expanded, fixed-line and internet services remain largely under-developed.Ultimately, this thesis finds that weak policymaking in El Salvador and the rest of the Central American countrieswith the exception of Costa Rica-have led to unfulfilled universal service goals. 1 Introduction: Why does the Digital Divide Matter?E-mailing through computers.Conference-calling through telephones.Texting through mobile phones.Beneath the motherboards and prices of each technology is a concept that has transcended space and time; one which does not require hardware or infrastructure: communication.Communication, at its core, is the exchange of ideas which are comprised of the "information, knowledge, and culture [that] are central to human freedom and human development" (Benkler, 2006, p. 1).Telecommunication services facilitates this exchange.As telecommunication services have evolved, from the post office to the internet, so too have information and communication technologies (ICTs) which have allowed us to expand our social, political, and business networks.However, behind the use and access to these technologies are much larger economic and political forces which affect their access.One could look to Central America, where in the mid-1990s, after decades of state-owned telecommunication enterprises, telecommunication sectors undertook liberalization initiatives.For the Central American country of El Salvador, this has meant a political history comprised of an era of military dictatorship followed by a bumpy transition to democracy.Telecommunication services have been important in the development of both eras: in the former, networks were wholly owned by the military state which allowed it to pursue its own economic objectives while neglecting the social needs of its citizens.In the latter, democratic reforms paved the way for privatization and liberalization initiatives which were thought to bring wider access, better-quality services, and social and economic developments to the country.In both eras, the question of the access divide, later referred to as the "digital divide", existed in the backdrop, and whether or not more could be done to address it.

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