Use of the Internet in Venezuela has greatly expanded, but is mostly concentrated among younger, educated city residents, and centered on the capital, Caracas.
These light users come again from all economic strata except the lowest class, and they almost exclusively use cybercafés for job search purposes.
[11] As of 2012, statistical reports have shown Internet and broadband penetration in Venezuela as below average for Latin America and much lower than would be expected.
Mobile penetration is among the highest in Latin America, trailing only Argentina, Uruguay, and a number of Caribbean islands.
The country remains one of the last bastions of CDMA in Latin America, but the two leading mobile operators, Movilnet and Movistar, are finally turning to GSM.
This report provides an overview of Venezuela's mobile market, accompanied by statistical data and brief profiles of the operators.
The lack of US dollars due to the Venezuelan governments currency controls has also damaged Internet services because technological equipment must be imported into Venezuela.
Custom made apps have also been created to assist Venezuelans find goods and medicines affected by shortages in the country.
[19] The National Fibre-Optic Backbone project aims to build a 6,940 km network; Venezuela ranks third in the world for Facebook users as a percentage of Internet users; Venezuela's pay TV market suffers from rampant signal theft; in 2011/2012, two more companies entered the Venezuelan satellite TV market: CANTV and Inter.
[17] Movilnet, Movistar, and Digitel have been allocated additional spectrum; mobile operators are having to invest in their networks, which suffer from severe congestion; Digitel, Movistar, and MovilMax (a WiMAX provider) plan to deploy 4G/LTE networks in 2013/2014; more than one third of Venezuela's mobile subscribers still use CDMA technology; Venezuela continues to have the region's highest ARPU.
The law was intended to exercise control over content that could "entice felonies", "create social distress", or "question the legitimate constituted authority".
The order is based on Venezuela's 2004 media law which makes it illegal to disseminate information that could sow panic among the general public.
[26] Reporters Without Borders warned of the alleged "rising censorship in Venezuela's Internet service, including several websites and social networks facing shutdowns".