Costa Rica’s telecommunications market offers opportunities with its new liberalisation, opening the door for competition across all segments and boosting mobile penetration to 136% by 2015 with prepaid subscriptions, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.
Pyramid Research senior analyst Jose Magana said that the Latin American country is auctioning three mobile licenses over the next few months, and the process is expected to be completed before year end.
"Mobile penetration of the population closed at 52% in 2009, one of the lowest rates in Latin America and not consistent with the income level of the population," said Magana.
Pyramid Research forecast that after liberalisation, mobile penetration will advance to 136% by 2015 with prepaid subscriptions accounting for 79% of the total, and that mobile revenue will advance to $831m by 2015 from $603m in 2009, with gains coming mostly from data services, such as mobile broadband.
The researcher said that due to the competitiveness of the new liberalised market and the attractiveness of mobile data services, 3G handsets will quickly gain share in the total base, even ahead of Costa Rica’s Central American peers. By 2015, 40% of all handsets will be 3G.
"The lack of subsidies in Costa Rica make replacement of handsets very expensive for subscribers, but we forecast that competition will boost the adoption of advanced handsets, particularly among the high-end segment," said Magana.
