ICT Development in Mexico by 2022: Deceleration and Stagnation

The persistence of the digital divide in our country is a pending issue on the regulatory and public policy agenda in Mexico.

Despite the acceleration and intensification of access to and use of connectivity brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, such that a quarter of the population remains to be connected, there are still marked differences between socioeconomic levels, age groups, rural/urban environment, and especially, between federal entities.

In this regard, The Social Intelligence Unit (The SIU, www.the-siu.net) for several years, quantifies and identifies the advances, gaps and lags in Mexico through the use of the ICT Development Index (IDT) methodology. Developed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). From this, the IDT-Mex metric (bit.ly/3JeSP48) is obtained with values ​​at the federal and state levels, which is made up of three sub-indices (access, use and capacities) with indicators from the National Survey on Availability and Use of ICT (ENDUTIH) of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).

IDT-Mex: Slowdown in Growth. This metric registers values ​​between 0 and 10, which imply complete disconnection (without access, use or technological skills) and complete ICT development (the opposite case), respectively. In its most recent measurement at the national level, it reaches a level of 5.97, just over halfway to find itself in the long-awaited scenario of universal connectivity.

In its evolution in recent years, a multiplication of practically two times in the IDT-Mex stands out. However, its growth has been less and less, going from 40% between 2016 and 2018, 22% between 2018 and 2020 and 10% between 2020 and 2022. This reveals a slowdown in the expansion and development of connectivity in our country.

Two Mexicos in ICT Development. From applying this conception coined in the seventies, states that suffer from a kind of ‘digital disability’ and those in full conditions of access and use of connectivity are outlined.

Mainly, the northern and central states (eg CDMX, Nuevo León and Baja California) register the highest or medium-high levels in the IDT-Mex, while those to the south (eg Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero) the lowest rates , derived from its structural lag.

In absolute terms, 15 entities are below the national average (5.97), the most dramatic cases are Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero with levels below 5 points. This result is even more contrasting when comparing the IDT-Mex average between the states that are in the highest and lowest category between 2016 and 2022, such that a digital lag of up to four years is identified for them to reach similar indicators. .

Despite the fact that Mexico registers increasing levels of access and use of connectivity, these have slowed down their growth rate, especially in those states that are most digitally backward.

This circumstance points to the need to focus connectivity programs towards an objective of social coverage, with precise actions to expand the availability, use and digital skills in regions that lack and are lagging behind in these areas. The ways to achieve this strategy would be by stimulating investment in infrastructure, creating effective competition in the telecommunications sector, as well as having a specific policy for universal access and development of ICTs in Mexico.

@ernestopiedras