Telecommunications in El Salvador include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet, centered primarily around the capital, San Salvador.

Radio and television

Radio stations Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio sta ...

: Hundreds of commercial radio broadcast stations and 1 government-owned radio broadcast station (2007)."Communications: El Salvador"
''World Factbook'', U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, 7 January 2014. Retrieved 12 January 2014. *

Radios Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitt ...

: 5.75 million (1997). * Televisions stations: Multiple privately owned national terrestrial TV networks, supplemented by cable TV networks that carry international channels (2007). *

Television set A television set or television receiver, more commonly called the television, TV, TV set, telly, tele, or tube, is a device that combines a tuner, display, and loudspeakers, for the purpose of viewing and hearing television broadcasts, or using ...

s: 5,900,881 (2005). The

Telecorporación Salvadoreña Telecorporación Salvadoreña (TCS) is a television network corporation in El Salvador. Telecorporación Salvadoreña is a group of local television stations formed by channels 2, 4, 6, and TCS+. (channel 35) TCS launched began transmissions on ch ...

(TCS) consists of four television stations, channels 2, 4, 6, 35. Other small chains of television networks operate in the west and east sides of the country. The law permits the executive branch to use the emergency broadcasting service to take over all broadcast and cable networks temporarily to televise political programming. The president occasionally uses this law to highlight his accomplishments.

Telephones

* Calling code: +503 *

International call prefix An international call prefix, international dial-out code or international direct dial code (IDD code) is a trunk prefix that indicates an international phone call. In the dialling sequence, the prefix precedes the country calling code (and, fur ...

: 00 * Fixed lines: 1.1 million lines in use, 74th in the world (2012). * Mobile cellular: 8.7 million lines, 88th in the world (2012); in 2007 the number of mobile phones exceeded the country's population giving the country a 1.06 per capita cellphone penetration rate. * Teledensity: Mobile cellular exceeds 135 per 100 persons (2011). * Telephone system: multiple mobile-cellular providers are expanding services rapidly; growth in fixed-line services has slowed in the face of mobile-cellular competition (2011). * Satellite earth stations: 1 Intelsat (

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

) (2011). * Connected to the Central American Microwave System (2011), a trunk microwave radio relay system that links the countries of

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

with each other.

Internet

Top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in ...

.sv .sv is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for El Salvador. Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 has a bug in its Swedish version where .sv is used instead of .se .se, formerly branded as .SE, is the Internet The Interne ...

Internet users The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

: 3.8 million users, 59.4% of the population (2019). * Fixed broadband: 235,403 subscriptions, 81st in the world; 3.9% of the population, 111th in the world (2012).Calculated using penetration rate and population data fro
"Countries and Areas Ranked by Population: 2012"
, Population data, International Programs, U.S. Census Bureau, retrieved 26 June 2013"Percentage of Individuals using the Internet 2000-2012"
International Telecommunication Union (Geneva), June 2013, retrieved 22 June 2013"Fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 2012"
Dynamic Report, ITU ITC EYE,

International Telecommunication Union The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...

. Retrieved on 29 June 2013. *

Wireless broadband Wireless broadband is telecommunications technology that provides high-speed wireless Internet access or computer networking access over a wide area. The term comprises both fixed and mobile broadband. The term broadband Originally the word ...

: 335,716, 104th in the world; 5.5% of the population, 104th in the world (2012)."Active mobile-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 2012"
Dynamic Report, ITU ITC EYE,

. Retrieved on 29 June 2013. * Internet hosts: 24,070 hosts (2012). * IPv4: 575,744 addresses allocated, less than 0.05% of the world total, 94.5 addresses per 1000 people (2012). *

Internet Service Provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...

s: 11 ISPs (early 2005).

IT Industry

El Salvador's

IT Industry Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...

's history started early with several IT outsourcing companies such as

Gpremper Gpremper is a web design and development company founded in 1998 with headquarters in San Salvador, El Salvador, and offices in other Central American countries and Germany. It is a web development outsourcing firm that contracts with companies ...

and an early search engine that predated

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

in 1995 called "Buscaniguas". The industry has since expanded with companies such as Creativa Consultores, Applaudo Studios, and Elaniin providing software and website design services to clients globally while employing thousands of people. Canadian

Telus International TELUS International is a Canadian technology company which provides IT services and multilingual customer service to global clients. Clients include corporations in technology, games, communications & media, eCommerce, fintech, travel & hospitali ...

, a major global IT outsourcing and software development firm, has a significant workforce in the country employing nearly 1,500 people in high tech and customer service roles. The startup scene has also been growing with firms such as HugoApp employing 600 locals and providing delivery and ride sharing services to nearly 1 million users in the

n/ CAFTA region. In 2020, the government announced its "Digital Agenda 2020" a plan to digitize government services, digitize identities, make it easier to start businesses, attract foreign investment and improve the education system. Finally, the passing of the

Bitcoin Law The Bitcoin Law ( es, Ley Bitcoin, )

in 2021 made El Salvador the first country in the world to adopt a cryptocurrency ( Bitcoin) as legal tender, this move seeks to improve access to financial services to the non-banked and under banked while also making El Salvador a hub for innovation.

Internet freedom

There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet or credible reports that the government monitors

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic (digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

or Internet

chat rooms The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from ...

without judicial oversight. Individuals and groups engage in the expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. Internet access is available in public places throughout the country."El Salvador"
''Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012'', Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State, 20 March 2013. Retrieved 12 January 2014 The constitution provides for freedom of speech and

press Press may refer to: Media * Print media or news media, commonly called "the press" * Printing press, commonly called "the press" * Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers * Press TV, an Iranian television network People * Press (surname), a fam ...

, and the government generally respects these rights. Individuals criticize the government publicly or privately without reprisal, and in most cases the government does not interfere with such criticism. In March 2012, Carlos Dada, the owner of online newspaper El Faro, received death threats from gang members. The gangs were unhappy with El Faro's reporting on the gang truce. On April 13, the

International Press Institute International Press Institute (IPI) is a global organisation dedicated to the promotion and protection of press freedom and the improvement of journalism practices. The institution was founded by 34 editors from 15 countries at Columbia University ...

criticized the government for not taking any actions to guarantee the safety of El Faro journalists. According to the Salvadoran Association of Journalists (APES), the media practices self-censorship, especially in their reporting on gangs and narcotics trafficking. APES stated that many members of the media were afraid to report in detail on these subjects due to fear of retaliation from gangs and narcotics trafficking groups. The constitution prohibits arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence, and the government generally respects these prohibitions.

References

* *

External links

Superintendency of Electricity and Telecommunications
(SIGET) .
SVNet
registrar for the .sv domain .

.
GSM Cell Phone Networks in El Salvador
{{San Salvador TV El Salvador El Salvador El Salvador