A total of 8,618,015 mobile phones are in use in the Dominican Republic, which means that 82.69% of the population has a telephone.

Nevertheless, there are phones and there are phones. According to Dominican Telecommunications Institute (Indotel) president Gedeon Santos, 86% of the phones are not worth more than US$20.

He said that although smart phones would help more people to connect to the Internet, they are still unaffordable to most. They cost at least US$200.

He adds that only 14% of homes are connected to the Internet. The figures are from the Enhogar 2013 study, which found that only 22% of homes in the Dominican Republic have a computer.

He went on to say that around 26% of the population is connected to the Internet and that this is one of the lowest rates in the region, only comparable to Nicaragua and Honduras. He added that for many people the connection is very weak.

The Enhogar research showed that many people only have access to the Internet at work. Nevertheless, the study showed that in middle class households many families have up to three computers.

De los Santos says that Internet connectivity needs to be improved throughout the whole country. The southwest of the country has the worst Internet coverage.