Internet in Mexico

Mexico has approximately 70 million Internet users and is currently experiencing a huge surge in demand for broadband Internet services. Mexico is the country with the most Internet users among Spanish speaking counties in the western hemisphere, and in August 2005 Cisco Systems, the industry leader in Internet backbone routing equipment, said they see Mexico and countries in Latin America as the focal point for growth in coming years, with Mexico receiving the biggest chunk of their investments, identifying it as a hypergrowth market for equipment suppliers. Additionally looking at the historical growth for the period from 2001 to 2005 we see broadband Internet jump from 0.1 subscribers per hundred population to 2.2 subscribers per hundred population, a growth of 2100% in just 5 years.

Telmex has a de facto monopoly in providing (A)DSL connectivity. After being converted from a state monopoly to a private monopoly by President Carlos Salinas de Gortari in 1990 it took the Mexican Government 5 years to establish regulations in the Telecommunications Act and only then competitors were allowed to enter the Mexican telecommunication market, leaving Telmex' and its owner Carlos Slim enough time to extend their technological lead.

It is also one of the few Latin American countries that has no Internet censorship. Nevertheless, Mexico is lagging behind the world average in connection speeds.