Regulatory solutions for fixed broadband diffusion in Peru: learning from Korea and Chile

Abstract

The importance of Broadband Internet for the wealth of a country has become more significant in last decades not only with deployment of networks and services around the world, but also with the mature concept of globalization. As a result, governments, which play an important role for broadband diffusion, show an intensive concern for achieving a rational broadband status targeting social inclusion and public benefit. The aim of this study was to analyze the fixed broadband status as well as the government initiatives in Korea, which is the country with the highest fixed broadband penetration in the world, and Chile, which shows the best performance among Latin countries, in order to seek for suitable regulatory solutions in Peru, which reports the lowest fixed broadband penetration in the region. Data was collected from secondary sources as well as to the evolution of broadband market in Korea and Chile. This data was selected from international and official websites related to broadband indicators and policies. The collected data was analyzed using two approaches: public good and competition-based. Moreover, PEST and regulatory evaluation was conducted for Peru in order to determine which actions should be adopted by the Peruvian government to increase fixed broadband diffusion. In terms of broadband as a public good, measurements showed that penetration of fixed broadband in Korea is 36.9%, while in Chile is 11.59%, and Peru is lagging behind with just 4.04%. Furthermore, the most significant gaps among countries were regarding broadband in the competition-based approach. In that sense, best practices performed by Chile and Korea are considered to recommend more efforts towards efficient competition in fixed broadband market, and illiteracy in order to increase fixed broadband diffusion in Peru.