Brazil has the most resilient Internet in South America

Amidst so many less than honorable titles – world champion of real interest rates or the greatest socioeconomic inequality on the planet – Brazil can be proud of having the most resilient in South America, according to the ranking of the Internet Resilience Index (IRI), produced by the Internet Society, a global charitable organization that defends the Internet open.

The Tupiniquim leadership leaves behind traditional rivals on the continent, such as Chile, Argentina and Uruguay which, however, have higher human development indexes (HDI) than the country green yellow. The world balance contains data from 170 countries.

In the Internet Society's assessment, an Internet connection that maintains an acceptable level of service in the face of failures and challenges to normal operation is considered resilient. As a classification criterion, countries are evaluated within a scale ranging from zero to 100%, that is, the higher the score, the better positioned they will be.

In this regard, in addition to receiving a general score of 56% in the IRI, Brazil obtained 65% in the 'market readiness' item, the best score in the Americas, surpassing more developed nations such as Canada (59%), the United States (52%), Argentina (53%) and Mexico (43%) – the five largest economies on the continent, in addition to Brazilian. In the world ranking, the top belonged to Switzerland (73%), since no nation reached 80% of classification.

For the purpose of classifying nations, the IRI tracks the resilience of the Internet, based on key metrics, which include data such as infrastructure quality, network performance and security, not to mention the market readiness.

At the core of the initiative, the organization of the ranking points to the 'supply' of inputs that allow, both public agents, and for activists, the formulation of policies that improve indicators of quality and availability of Internet.

In a note, the Internet Society emphasizes that “decision makers in Latin America can use this overview to understand the forces and weaknesses in its Internet ecosystem and make data-driven decisions on where to invest and improve the country's overall resilience”.

In this sense, the organization points out that “not all countries have reliable Internet infrastructure”, noting that those from low-income support undersized networks, lack robust cable infrastructure, as well as redundant systems of interconnection.

“In these countries or regions, the likelihood of Internet outages is much higher than elsewhere. Neighboring countries are less likely to provide interconnection and global providers are less likely to probability of investing to improve the existing infrastructure, as the Internet is not sufficiently reliable. The cost of Internet access for end users is also higher,” concluded the Internet Society.

Check out the scores of Mexico, Brazil and Colombia in the four pillars that make up the IRI:

Infrastructure – Scores assess the existence and availability of physical infrastructure for Internet connectivity in each country.

Mexico: 39%

Brazil: 43%

Colombia: 38%

Performance – Scores assess the ability of each country's networks to provide end users with continuous and reliable access to Internet services.

Mexico: 35%

Brazil: 54%

Colombia: 31%

Security – Scores measure the ability of each country's networks to withstand intentional or unintentional outages through the adoption of security technologies and best practices.

Mexico: 61%

Brazil: 63%

Colombia: 56%

Market Readiness – Scores measure each country's market ability to self-regulate and offer affordable prices to end users, maintaining a diverse and competitive market.

Mexico: 43%

Brazil: 65%

Colombia: 59%