Cuba ranks 95th in a ranking that analyzes 120 countries and measures the Internet Inclusion Index.
The report, presented by the social network Facebook in collaboration with The Economist magazine, provides relevant information on the availability of Internet access, as well as the price and relevance of the contents that each country offers on the network of networks.
Facebook found that the coverage and quality of content on the island «are among the worst» in the world.
The overall index score is based on scores in the categories of Availability (examines the quality and extent of infrastructure available to ensure Internet access and use), Affordability (evaluates the cost of access in relation to income and compares it to the international market), Relevance (the scope of relevant content and materials in the local language) and Readiness (examines the ability to access, in addition to basic knowledge, cultural acceptance and policy support).
In each of these categories the island ranked as follows:
- Availability: ranked 92nd
- Affordability: ranked 95th
- Relevance: 98th
- Readiness: ranked 90th
By these standards, within its geographic area Cuba ranks last, behind the Dominican Republic (78th), Venezuela (79th), Jamaica (81st), Guatemala (87th), Honduras (91st) and Nicaragua (92nd).
«Cuba ranks last among the 20 Latin American countries. The country ranks 95th among all, with its best performance in readiness, ranked 90th worldwide. Although the country has made progress in three of the four main categories, its regression in local and relevant content is a clear area for improvement,» says the Facebook report.
Conversely, Chile is the best-ranked Latin American country in the global ranking, ranking 21st worldwide.
The study, which took into account 120 countries (a sample representing 98% of the world’s GDP and 96% of the global population), ranked Sweden first in the Internet Inclusion Index, followed by the United States and Spain, with Australia and Hong Kong sharing fourth place globally, and then Canada.
In March last year, the same study revealed that Cuba ranked 84th, thus losing 9 places in the ranking established by the largest social network.
Speedtest and the fall of Cuba’s good positioning
At the end of 2019, the British news agency BBC published an article where Cuba topped the list of Latin American and Caribbean countries, according to a study presented by Speedtest, a website that measures the speed of Internet connections worldwide.
At that time the island was 64th in the world ranking for mobile speed and second in the region, with a download speed equal to 28.35 Mbps.
The official press media referred to the news as an event. Cubadebate and Cubahora published at the end of 2019 two articles, referring to the Speedtest study.
Unfortunately according to the report presented by Speedtest in July 2021, Cuba now ranks 111th out of 139 countries with a speed of 20.98 Mbps for mobile networks, while for fixed connection networks it ranks second to last (179) among the 180 countries analyzed, with an average speed of 4.61 Mbps.
SpeedTest reports that the results are updated in the middle of each month, and refer to the previous month.
As of January 1, 2019, countries must have at least 300 unique user results for mobile or fixed broadband to be classified in either category.
Prior to January 1, 2019, 670 unique user results were required for mobile and 3333 for fixed broadband.
Just a few days ago Directorio Cubano published a Cable article where Cuba is ranked the worst in the region and 185th globally.
