Smartphones surpass PCs for internet access in Brazil

Smartphones have surpassed PCs as the preferred device to connect to the internet in Brazilian households, according to data just released from the 2014 national household survey PNAD, conducted by national statistics bureau IBGE.

According to the survey, nearly 55% of households (or 36.8mn homes) had internet access in 2014, up from 48% in 2013, with 99.2% connected via broadband networks and only 0.8% on dial-up connections.

However, the connectivity gap is still significant depending on the region: while 60.8% of urban households were connected to the internet, the rate among rural homes was just 18.5%.

Of all connected homes, 80.4% accessed the internet via mobile phones (up from 53.6% the year before), 76.6% via computers (88.4% in 2013) and 21.9% via tablets (17.2% in 2013). More than one access method could be selected.

Around 5% of the homes accessed the internet from smart TVs.

INTERNET USERS

For the first time Brazil had more people online than offline.

According to IBGE, 54.4% of the Brazilian population aged 10 or older, or 95.4mn people, accessed the internet in 2014. In 2013, the number of internet users was 85.6mn, or 49.4% of the population at the time.

IBGE considers those people claiming to have accessed the internet at least once in the 90 days prior to the survey as being internet users.

MOBILE PHONES

The number of people aged 10 or more who owned cell phones increased to 137mn (78% of the population), from 130mn in 2013. For the first time, more than half (52.5%) of rural Brazilians had a mobile phone.

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