Income Differences Begin to Emerge With More Expensive ICTs

• The urban survey in Peru interviewed 287 Peruvians in the low income category, 319 Peruvians in the middle income category and 143 Peruvians in the high income category
• There was a distinct income disparity for household access to computers, internet and MP3/I-Pods; those with higher income levels had greater access (see chart 2).

Chart 2

• For traditional mediums of communication such as televisions and radios is nearly similar and high across income levels (see chart 3). Nonetheless, low incomes inhibited access to cable connnections for their TVs and landline telephone connections.

Chart 3

Media Use

• In terms of media/ICT use as well, internet and mobile phone use was higher for those with higher incomes (see chart 4). Television and radio weekly use was almost the same for all income levels.

Chart 4

• The same trend is observed with weekly news sources. Urban Peruvians with higher income levels were more likely to rely on the internet and SMS for their weekly news (see chart 5).

Chart 5

Internet Activities

• A majority of urban Peruvians, who have low incomes, go online at internet cafés (87 percent with low income, as opposed to 75 percent with middle income and 53 percent with high income). The cabinas publicas make it possible for many Peruvians to go online in an inexpensive way. Those with high incomes have greater access to the internet at home or at work.

Chart 6

• With the cheap internet access at these cabinas publicas, a higher proportion of lower income respondents are able to go online, check their emails and play online games than in other developing nations in the region. As chart 7 below shows, the percentages of those respondents with these activities in the previous month are more consistent across all income levels.

Chart 7

• For online activites that require more advanced technologies such as accessing audio and video content, only those with higher incomes are able to use them.

Chart 8

• The same can be said of Web 2.0 activities. Though they don’t require higher incomes or expensive technology to access, they are globally still associated with the knowledge elites, who have higher education levels and greater social mobility which , in turn people with lower income don’t enjoy. This seems to hold true to some extent in urban Peru, as chart 9 shows. Financial transactions, still in its nascent stages is also strongly related to high income levels.

Chart 9

Mobile Phones Activities (Monthly)

• With cheap connections available throughout, household access to mobile phones is more popular than landlines across all income groups. Even those with lower incomes are able to afford mobile connections in their households. More sophisticated mobile phone devices such as Blackberries or I-Phones are still rare, irrespective of income groups.

Chart 10

• Charts 11 show with relatively high access that lower income groups enjoy, the use of more sophisticated applications such as listening to music, clicking pictures and sharing them and conducting financial transactions using mobile phones still remains most accessible to those in the high income group.

Chart 11

Chart 12

• The same can be said of accessing other mediums on the mobile phone, such as internet and radio; see chart 12 for figures.

Weekly Radio Use: Methods and Frequencies

Chart 13

• In particular, FM frequency is the most popular for all income groups. Convergence of mediums through activities such as listening to the radio on the internet, which is becoming more common in nations with greater connectivity, is yet to become very popular, and is only accessible to those with high incomes.