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Good practice Imported

Internet para Todos – Red Nacional Internet 2.0 (Panama)

Panama · Panama City · See the Panama profile · See the Panama City profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 59% 68/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

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.

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

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