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Good practice

Internet para Todos – Red Nacional Internet 2.0 (Panama)

Panama · Panama City · See the Panama profile

Panama's government-run free public Wi-Fi network, coordinated by AIG across ~36 public entities, deployed 1,320 access points nationwide from 2017 at a cost of B/.21.6m, reaching an estimated 80–84% of the population at speeds later upgraded well beyond the original 2 Mbps.

1,320
Access points deployed
B/.21.6 million (~US$21.6m)
Investment / contract cost (2017-2020)
2 Mbps
Baseline bandwidth per user
80-84%
Estimated population coverage (within first two years)
350,000+
Estimated monthly users
1,200+ km
New fibre-optic backbone

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Autoridad Nacional para la Innovación Gubernamental (AIG), Government of Panama
Period
2017–present
Keywords
public Wi-Fi, rural connectivity, digital inclusion, e-government

Context

Internet para Todos (Red Nacional Internet, RNI 2.0) is Panama's national free public Wi-Fi programme, administered by the Autoridad Nacional para la Innovación Gubernamental (AIG) under the Junta Asesora de Servicio y Acceso Universal, with around 36 public entities collaborating on site selection. It was launched operationally in August 2017 and officially inaugurated in October 2017, deploying free Wi-Fi access points at public-interest sites such as courts, schools, health centres and parks.

Activities

Three private operators — Cable Onda, Cable & Wireless Panamá and Liberty Technologies — shared a B/.21.6 million contract covering implementation, maintenance and operation for 2017–2020, laying over 1,200 km of new fibre-optic backbone and prioritising rural areas and comarcas with limited existing broadband.

Results

The network deployed 1,320 access points, each initially offering 2 Mbps per user; Panamanian outlets estimated coverage of 80–84% of the national population within the first two years, with an estimated 350,000+ monthly users. Bandwidth at many sites has since been upgraded well past the original 2 Mbps, to 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps at some locations.

Implementation

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

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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