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Good practice Imported

FONATEL Hogares Conectados – Subsidised Internet and Device Programme for Households in Poverty (Costa Rica)

Costa Rica · San José · See the Costa Rica profile · See the San José profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 29% 88/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Costa Rica's national telecom fund connected 287,242 households in poverty with subsidised 5 Mbps internet and laptops (2016–2024). An external evaluation found a 22 percentage-point fall in the digital gap among poor households; winner of the ITU Success Stories 2016 award.

287,242
Households connected (2016-2024)
-22 pp
Fall in digital gap among poor households
FONATEL Hogares Conectados – Subsidised Internet and Device Programme for Households in Poverty (Costa Rica)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
SUTEL / FONATEL (Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones / Fondo Nacional de Telecomunicaciones)
Period
2016–2028
Keywords
government, telecommunications, social policy, universal service

Context

Costa Rica's FONATEL Hogares Conectados connected households in poverty with subsidised internet and laptops through the national telecom fund (2016–2024).

Results

It connected 287,242 households in poverty with subsidised 5 Mbps internet and laptops; an external evaluation found a 22 percentage-point fall in the digital gap among poor households, and it won the ITU Success Stories 2016 award.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

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