The number of Brazilians who access the Internet from home at speeds greater than or equal to 2 Mb grew 91% between June 2011 and the same month of 2012, increasing from 8.8 million to 16.8 million people. The data is from a survey conducted by IBOPE Nielsen and refers exclusively to fixed Internet.

The number of users with connections less than or equal to 512 Kb, numbering 10 million in June 2011, fell 39% to 6.1 million in June last year. According to Communications Minister, Paulo Bernardo, the data demonstrates that the Brazilian consumer is becoming more demanding as a result of the progressive increase in supply and interest in high-bandwidth content.

"Brazil is in the process of migrating very slow connections to fast connections which enable online movie streaming, for example," he said.

According to the minister, the first step in this change was the implementation of the National Broadband Program (PNBL) which provides for the sale of 1 Mbps Internet at a cost of R$ 35 per month.  However, Bernardo believes that the market itself should create more advantageous alternatives for the consumer: "I believe that, before long, 1 Mbps Internet will become unattractive. People will want higher speeds and will no longer accept paying R$ 35."

Source:

Ministry of Communications

23 April 2013