PANAMA, which former president Ricardo Martinelli liked to compare with Singapore, ranked near the bottom in a recent study of mobile broadband service in 17 countries in the region.

Singapore has one of the fastest services in the world, rivaled only by Hong Kong.
Any local user of internet services will not be surprised by the news, in spite of rivaling claims of the fastest gun in town.
The study was conducted by the Latin America Economic Commission. In the study, Panama's service was less than four megabits per second, which is four times slower than the service in Uruguay, which was the fastest at 16.96 Mbps.
"The reason for this gap is due to the government investment aimed at the expansion of services," said José Felipe Otero, director of 4G Americas, an association that brings together the majority of cellular operators in the region.
He explains that in Uruguay, the connection speed exceeds even many parts of the United States and Canada.
Other analysts suggest that many companies in the region have been devoted to increasing the coverage of their networks, rather than improving the quality of existing service.
Roberto Mendoza, executive director of Cable & Wireless, was quick to rush to his company’s defense and said the speed is adequate and "above the average suggested by the UN." Panama has 6.2 million active cell phone lines, 88 percent of which are prepaid.
Between 2008 and 2014, cell phone companies reported revenues of $3.8 billion, presumably from those waiting for speedier service while the current suppliers are busy trawling for new clients for the slow train. .