Convergencia Research, Consultoría especializada en Latinoamérica y Caribe
Friday, February 13, 2015

Mobile Services Map 2015

Challenges: make spectrum abundance profitable and meet AT&T expansión

Mobile Services Map 2015 - Credit: © 2015 Convergencialatina
Mobile Services Map 2015 - Credit: © 2015 Convergencialatina

Five major international players head Convergencialatina Mobile Services Map 2015 edition. Each of them evolves with particular perspectives. While it may be observed that AT&T strongly ventures in the region in recent months (it bought Iusacell and Nextel's operations in Mexico and previously, Directv), América Móvil, Telefónica and Millicom maintain their prevailing presence and Telecom Italia ranges from investment to divestment attempts, both in Brazil and in Argentina. Overall, they represent 40% of the operations under analysis.

A second line of relevant operators (marked with smaller rhombuses) appears headed by Oi, due to its significant operation in Brazi, over 50 million subscribers, now unburdened by Portugal Telecom; Entel, owned by Grupo Almendral, besides Chile,  consolidated its operations in Peru; Cable&Wireless and Digicel, which keep their strength in Panama and the Caribbean; and NII Holdings, on clear drawdown after the sale of its subsidiaries in Mexico (to AT&T) and in Chile (to Novator investment firm based at London). Overall, they represent 20% of the operations under consideration.

A wide group of service providers (from left to right, those from Latin America and reversely, those from the Caribbean, both alphabetically listed per country) follow the above operators, with the remaining 40% of operations, wherein ventures having state participation are highlighted (in gray), with significant development in the last decade: 15 out of a hundred operations under study.

Below the brand name under which each player commercializes its mobile services, the relevant available frequencies are higlighted (2G, in purple; 3G, in light blue and 4G, in yellow). As seen therein, unlike recorded in previous years, the map has been crowded with LTE in different bands (60% of operators have frequencies), thus indicating that spectrum scarcity is no longer a critical issue, and the dilemma now lies on those applications making investment profitable in the state-of-the-art technology. Cuba, Haiti, Guyana, El Salvador and Bermuda are some of the few cases where 4G has not yet bursted in any band.

So far, Tigo, in a prevailing position and, to a lesser extent, Claro, venture into mobile money variants. 20% of hundred operations surveyed, offer this service. As regards MVNOs, segment in which Virgin Mobile emerges as the most consolidated operator, although with presence just in four countries, it is still under an early development stage. From 30 MVNOs surveyed on the map, Mexico with nine, Chile with six, Brazil with five, and Colombia with four MVNOs are the countries most open in this respect.

Expectations for 2016 revolve around incorporating video in real time in order to turn 4G profitable. They also comprise the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine to machine connections (M2M) because user’s lines penetration does no longer provide a path for growth. AT&T potential extension to other markets, using as beachhead Directv acquisition, with over 20 million customers in the region are also encompassed within said expectations. 

In case you may want a copy of this map, please contact suscripcioneslatam@convergencia.com

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