The Internet in VenezuelaBy Iván R. Méndez ISOC Ambassador at the Internet Governance Forum 2014 ivanxcaracas@gmail.com | @ivanxcaracas

At the beginning of August 2014, Venezuela’s Official Internet regulator, CONA-TEL (www.conatel.gob.ve), published the latest numbers on the Telecommunications sector. Its report indicates that the internet penetration in the country is 44%, althou-gh over 51% of those users are grouped in only three states: Caracas, Miranda and Zulia. In other states like Apure, there’s ba-rely 13% penetration. These Internet con-nections are made at the lowest speed in South America (1.7mbps) and one of the slowest in the world, according to NetIndeX.

In Venezuela, Human Rights are being violated continuously (illegal detentions, political prisoners, tear gas repression, house raids and expropriation of com-panies without legal basis) for over a decade. The Internet does not scape this official conduct: blockage of web sites with unofficial content or content that does

not please the government (for example, the Co-lombian news channel www.ntn24.com). The pu-blic media promotes the violation and disclosure of private content of email addresses of opposition leaders or entrepreneurs, as well as encroachment on their Twitter accounts. The most emblematic ca-ses of 2014 were set forth in the student protests of February, where the regime through CANTV, the official carrier, generated a blackout on the Inter-net by preventing the uploading of images of strong repression to Twitter and drastically reducing the speed of access to sites with not official propaganda.

The following are analytical components of what is happening in the Internet Ecosystem in Venezuela, written by journalists and country analysts’ highlights.

Testimonials from Twitter, especially for the IGF 2014

@infocracia , journalist, columnist and Human Rights defender “Structural problems, digital divide between the connected and not connected, connection quality and political content control.”

Internet BlockageBy Jorge Espinoza Journalist and columnist of Inside Telecom jlespinoza2@gmail.com | @JORGETELECOM

In February 2014, the main ISP in Venezuela, CANTV, which handles around 80% of the tra-ffic, completely or partially blocked access to a Venezuelan federal entity where protests were recorded against the presidential administra-tion of Nicolas Maduro. The electricity was also cut through the monopoly of the National Elec-tric Corporation. It sought to silence the protesters and prevent the rest of the country and the world to see the abuses of the military and police forces.

Source: http://bit.ly/VR0vxZ

Venezuela is a black hole in cybercrime statisticsBy Rafael Núñez Ethical Hacker, Tech communicator and consultant. rafa@cleanperception.com |@enfoqueseguro

In Venezuela there is no institution carrying and publi-shing statistics on cyber attacks. In Clean Perception we receive approximately 45 weekly requests of recovery by high-profile accounts. In the case of counterfeiting Twitter accounts, it is made public only if the victim deci-des to reveal it. On the other hand, Twitter, Facebook, Ask.fm and Instagram handle different policies in these cases and require a report to work on the matter, which discourages the victims who choose simply to create another profile.

Recommended Articles: http://engt.co/1qysWNz | http://on.mash.to/1hZF7kj

Testimonials from Twitter, especially for the IGF 2014@antonioduarte55, Tech analyst and developer“Since there is no investment dollars in hardware and software, that will result in the service. Now you’re seeing slow and difficult access. “

“Without democracy but with internet”By Fernando Núñez Noda Journalist and columnist of Huffington Postnuneznoda@gmail.com | @nuneznoda

On February 12, the day of the strong student protests in Venezuela, the Washington Beacon outlined this: “Protestors have already been shot with pellets, tear gas, and other weapons by government-backed police, who have become increasingly violent since Maduro banned street demonstra-tions and ordered a widespread media blackout”.

BBC World: “The news blackout that has hit in recent days the coverage of protests in Venezuela is having a cascading effect on social media, to the point that some have trans-formed into the circumstantial substitute for local media, especially television “

The blackout blinds a major segment of the population to what happens, since it has no access or is not accustomed to Internet use. As it says in the BBC article by Marcelino Bisbal, skilled communicator and scholar, “networks work only for a hyper-informed elite -and not elite in the evil sense- who can access information and produce it.”

Over 60% of Internet traffic passes through the servers of CANTV, the state telecommunications company. This allows a non-democratic regime all kinds of maneuvers, including espionage and interception of emails. Vene-zuela exhibits the slowest Internet connection in the Americas, surpassed only by Cuba. For the curious, the Venezuelan connection is 1.98 Mbps download 16.7 vs the world average.

Sources: http://huff.to/1qLciGJ | http://bit.ly/1jam72L

Testimonials from Twitter, especially for the IGF 2014@superdharma, Journalist, University Professor“CANTV centralizes everything and ends up having a political hue + foreign exchange con-trol that also limits contained consumables” “Lack of investment to upgrade platforms, since providers do not have access to foreign exchange needed + lack of neutrality”

@xtr3me_fx , engineering student UCV“We are among the last countries in terms of speed and access is limited. It should be a necessity and not a luxury.”

Smartphones sales drop in Venezuela By William PeñaJournalist, Inside Telecom Editor. Tech Coordinator at TalCualthpena@gmail.com | @williampm

Since the national government centralized the purcha-se of mobile devices in 2008 through the creation of state-owned Telecom Venezuela, importing phones fell precipitously. About 15 million devices were sold in 2008, in 2013 the market closed with 3 million, a fall of over 60% in the last five years. The main reason of the problem is the limitation of foreign exchange for the import of equipment, together with Telecom Vene-zuela’s decision to only allow one purchase order of equipment per year per carrier (who used to buy each quarter and with no restrictions) and limited quantities and models. With that decision, Telecom Venezuela, paralyzed a market that was not only considered one of the liveliest in the region, but also was a leader in the Upper Premium segment of the market with sales of close to 40% of total equipment sells (in the region the average was 20%).In recent years, this problem is affecting the country’s position on use of mobile and new generation devices, of course, it has impacted the progress of the nation in innovation, apps development, employment production, among others, for as technologies permeate society, entrepreneurs attempt to connect their ideas with what is going on and, in the case of Vene-zuela, that has not happening in recent years. The same problem is faced by the computer industry, for about four years, the national government also limited the import of equipment under the pretext of local production through joint ventures, but that business is not able to meet the demands of a market that requires more than one million units annually. Today, to get a mobile device or a computer is more than an ordeal, because those available are extremely expensive and not all Venezuelans have this ability. The fight against speculation, which brought us Telecom Venezuela, is still intact and the sole party in which it does not exist is in the service operators, but they cannot get their devices or, when they arrive, they come in ridiculous amounts and are sold in a short time.

Testimonials from Twitter, especially for the IGF 2014@rociotata, philosopher and Director of @Cedice“I think the flaws are all in access and structure, they are low quality, permanently falling and malfunction of the broadband. Low speed.”

@luiscarlos , journalist and activist“The Government controls the communications inefficiently. It’s fallen behind. Lack of compe-tition and foreign exchange”.

@LuisbarraganJ, lawyer and congressman“Failure in State politics (Infocentros). Digital divide. Law system prone to censorship. The connections should be free.”

@kareta, journalist, 2.0 consultant“The biggest flaw is the lack of investment in the sector. That has primarily political and econo-mic reasons.”

Low connection speed drives the Digital Divide in VenezuelaBy Alcides LeónTech columnist and consultant. aleon1969@gmail.com |@aleon1969

The connection speed is widening the digital divide in Venezuela, isolating not only services that demand lots of bandwidth, like video streaming or IPTV, but also causing problems for keeping the computers updated. For years, the government gave priority to extend digital coverage to more people, neglecting the aspect referred to performance, to the point that, according to Net Index, Venezuela’s bandwidth ranks 182, just 10 posts to the last country on the list, just beating Cuba, a country whose bandwidth depends largely on Venezuela, after the laying of a submarine cable to interconnect these two countries together with Jamaica. Paradoxically, Jamaica is ranked 114 with three times the average bandwidth of Venezuela. Updates to operating systems, antivirus signature files and program updates usually take so long that the end users decide to put it off, risking their devices and other equipment and data carried over the same networks. Even free technologies, driven by the government end up being affected, like the latest updates of OpenSuse systems, which are as large as their commercial counterparts. The unipolar strategy of the government to expand access and improvement, forget about the connection speed, which is greatly affected by the complicated process of gaining access to foreign exchange to pay interconnection services, and is over-turning the Internet into an in-complete experience for users in Venezuela. By analogy it is like learning to read, but without understanding what is read.

Source: http://bit.ly/1jam72L

Internet in Venezuela: The opportunitiesBy Ricardo HolmquistPresident ISOC Venezuela. CAVEDATOS Directorrihogris@gmail.com | @rihogris

The message from the government about free wifi aims to massify the Internet penetration in Venezuela, and with this goal in mind, many things can be done. There are several additio-nal opportunities in the horizon, the first one is local, with the enactment of the Info-Government Law (Ley de Infogobierno*) on August 17, the State commits to place online most procedures that are carried out today in person. This initiative will generate local content to consume, which will encourage users to get online. The second opportunity, more global, is the arrival of Web 3.0 with the Internet of Things and its ecosystem of devices to be connected and we will be “forced” to have Internet.

(*): Info-Government Law: http://bit.ly/1mTuAVi

AcknowledgementsThis Dossier is the product of ISOC Venezuela’s invitation of participate, as an Ambassador, to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2014.

The analysts Alcides León, Jorge Espinoza, William Peña, Rafael Núñez, Fernando Nuñez Noda and Ricardo Holmquist, president of ISOC Venezuela, contributed in its production with their patience and brilliant insight.

The translation to English was made by Daniela Izaguirre Downing, my beloved wife.

This dossier was possible to the support of Corporación XDV

My management and coverage of the the IGF in Turkey counted on the support of

ISOC | Samsung | Lenovo| Corporación XDV Grupo Plus | Táctica Comunicaciones | Elebece | Factum Comunicaciones

More info and ContactOnline version: http://bit.ly/1sDpmjJ@ivanxcaracas | @opinionynoticia | email: ivanxcaracas@gmail.com Caracas, Venezuela, August 2014.