Massive internet outage continues across much of Mexico

Sometime before 10:30, Tuesday night reports of internet outages began to flow across social media.

The internet service provider Infinitum, owned by Telmex, confirmed the outages but said the problem was limited to Mexico City and its metropolitan area. 

But people on Twitter across the country begged to differ. 

“I have not been able to get online since last night, and the phone lines are saturated,” said @missGabriela92 on Twitter from Veracruz.

In Yucatán, the outage seems to have also hit several regions, though most reports appear concentrated in northern Mérida. 

Reliable internet access continues to be a problem throughout much of Mexico, and its effects have become even more acutely felt throughout the COVID-19  pandemic.  

Earlier: CFE’s ‘scheduled’ power cuts hit Yucatán without warning

This has been especially true for the growing number of professionals working from home, as well as students attending classes online. 

Last month, Yucatán’s congress passed a bill making Internet access a human right. The legislation calls not only for universal Internet access but also high bandwidth, typically defined as download speeds of at least 25 megabytes per second.

Assuring that everyone in Yucatán has high-speed Internet access is a lofty goal, given that large rural areas of the state are still without even basic cell phone coverage.

Internet speeds in Mexico currently rank 82 out of 100, according to the American telecom firm Ookla. The top 10 spots on the list are dominated by nations in Asia and Europe, with Monaco taking first place.