Latin America - Telecoms and Fixed-line Statistics (tables only)

Additional Information

In the LAC region, telecom infrastructure varies from nonexistent to rudimentary, and from adequate to well advanced. Despite a low 18% teledensity, fixed-line growth in most LAC countries has stagnated since 2001. Operators have reached their service goals for line installation, and consumers increasingly favour mobile over fixed-line. There is, however, a growing demand for high-speed data services, and fixed-line operators are looking to ADSL services to increase their revenue potential. A number of fixed-line companies have introduced prepaid voice services in order to reduce payment defaults. Nevertheless, the fixed line market is likely to remain in its present stagnant condition, not helped by the global recession.

  The roll out of fibre optic networks continues to grow in Latin America, driven by the explosion of the mobile markets, the increase in broadband access, and the growth of IP-based services. There has, however, been hardly any activity in terms of FttH deployments.

  Most telecom markets in Latin America have been both privatised and liberalised. Those that are still monopolies are striving towards an open market, but the privatisation trend has been reversed. Two countries, Venezuela and Bolivia, have renationalised their telecom incumbents, while other countries where the main telco is still state-owned have shown no interest in selling it to the private market.

  When it comes to fixed lines, it is not easy for new entrants to roll out a network that can compete with the incumbents. Even with the deployment of alternative technologies, in most countries the historical telecom operators continue to dominate the basic telephony sector. Nevertheless, their market share is being eroded in a few countries, especially thanks to WLL, WiMAX, and triple play solutions offered by cable TV companies.

  Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may not be for the current year.

  Notes on scenario forecasts Throughout the report, BuddeComm provides a number of scenario forecasts. The following notes provide some background to our scenario forecasting methodology:

•          This report includes what we term scenario forecasts. By describing long-range scenarios we identify a band within which we expect market growth to occur. The associated text describes what we see as the most likely growth trend within this band.
•          The projections shown in the tables in this report are based on our own historical information, as well as on telecommunication sector statistics from official and non-official, national and international sources. We assume a possible deviation of 15-20% around this data.
•          All statistics for GDP, revenue, etc are shown in US$, in order to maintain consistency within and between markets. At the same time we acknowledge that this can introduce some irregularities.