en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Brazilian government plans to invest 14.8 billion reais over the next five years, aiming to expand meaningful universal digital connectivity nationwide by 2030.
The Ministry of Communications (MCom) has submitted the final report of the National Digital Inclusion Plan (PNID). The document aims to address shortcomings in infrastructure, device access, and digital literacy, while promoting inclusive projects.
The plan establishes a roadmap to reduce inequalities in internet access and accelerate the country's economic and social development. Its premise is that network coverage alone is no longer the sole challenge for achieving effective inclusion.
Resources required for implementing the PNID will primarily come from spectrum auctions (approximately 81%), the Universal Telecommunications Service Fund (Fondo del Servicio Universal de Telecomunicaciones, 16%), and federal budget allocations (2.5%).
To develop the PNID, an Interministerial Working Group (Grupo de Trabajo Interministerial, GTI) conducted a diagnosis of Brazil's technological and social conditions as of late 2025 and early 2026.
The analysis shows that physical infrastructure, while indispensable, is no longer the main bottleneck for the unconnected population. In 2024, internet services covered 93.6% of Brazil's permanent private households, totaling 74.9 million homes.
However, when assessing quality of experience, the picture is starkly different: only 20% of the Brazilian population has achieved the highest level of meaningful connectivity, while 30% remains in the most vulnerable digital utilization bracket.
Among the 5.1 million households completely offline, the main reasons reflect economic and educational barriers. Of these, 57% reported that no household member possesses the digital skills to use the internet; 49% cited the high cost of access services; and only 15% attributed disconnection to the unavailability of local networks. The technical report notes that "digital exclusion has a multidimensional nature, involving infrastructure, economic capacity, availability of appropriate devices, and skills development."
Although fiber optics account for 79% of fixed broadband access, and average contracted speeds surged to 491.45 Mbps in early 2026, the diagnosis reveals that modernization is highly concentrated in urban environments. Coverage maps from the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) show that 83% of municipalities have fiber optic backbone infrastructure (backhaul). However, 11% (628 municipalities) have no coverage plans under existing regulatory commitments, with 40% of this gap located in the Northeast region. According to the analysis, this structurally marginalizes 8.9 million citizens.
In mobile networks, 4G covers 99.62% of the urban population, but only 49.58% in rural areas. Meanwhile, 5G coverage stands at 77.71% in urban areas and just 3.63% in rural areas. Additionally, the PNID technical report points out that the lack of computers severely limits productive integration and digital education. 65% of the country's internet users access the web only via mobile phones.
Reliance on mobile devices is more pronounced among lower-income groups. In classes D and E, the rate of exclusive mobile internet access reaches 87%, and only 10% of households in these classes own a computer, compared to 97% in class A. Dependence on mobile phones and prepaid mobile services makes other activities, such as online education or remote work, more difficult.
To correct these asymmetries, the plan envisions investments in three priority areas over the next five years. In infrastructure, an investment of 3.87 billion reais is expected, including initiatives to install 16,190 kilometers of fiber optics in underserved municipalities and provide high-speed connections to 10,487 basic health units and 2,029 social assistance centers. In access universalization, an investment of 7.3 billion reais is expected, including initiatives to design connectivity subsidies for users of the Unified Registry System (CadÚnico), expand computer refurbishment centers to all state capitals, and build a sponsored access policy for e-government platforms. In digital skills, an investment of 3.6 billion reais is expected, including initiatives to fund the delivery of 1.11 million educational computers to public schools, launch a digital literacy pilot for vulnerable adults, and implement a national cybersecurity awareness campaign.
Furthermore, the GTI-PNID report proposes an institutional governance framework led by the Ministry of Communications. This framework will be coordinated within the Interministerial Committee for Digital Transformation (Comité Interministerial para la Transformación Digital) and supplemented by the establishment of the National Committee for Digital Inclusion (Comité Nacional de Inclusión Digital). This committee is a multisectoral collegiate body that will integrate representatives from government, states, municipalities, the private sector, academia, and civil society. This centralization responds to a warning from the Federal Court of Accounts (Tribunal de Cuentas de la Unión) in Agreement No. 1,699/2025, which noted that fragmentation and a lack of unified governance are flaws that have historically weakened the effectiveness of Brazil's digital inclusion policies.
