Last quarter of 2009 showed that mobile connections in Latin America exceeded 500 million, according to a GSM Association (GSMA). The association said that 91 percent of the market belongs to the GSM-HSPA family of technologies. Last year, about 64 million users joined the GSM community, especially true in Brazil, where 28 million users joined the GSM gang, 9.4 million of which were 3G. Mobile service penetration in Latin America has reached 86 percent.
In fact 3G terminals have been rapidly increasing. Although Brazil ended 2009 with 9.4 million 3G mobile phones, in January 2010 there were already 10.4 million units, tripling the three million recorded in March of the previous year. Interestingly enough, prepaid users are the largest 3G device consumers, press reports said. Those same sources estimate that 75.9 percent of 3G phones are on prepaid mode. The reasons behind this growth are attributed to 2 important facts: there are more 3G devices on the market (63 models in December 2008 and 111 a year later) and a decrease of six percent in prices of 3G phones and 12 percent in smartphones.
A few markets keep collecting prepaid users data in order to reduce crime associated to stolen mobile phones.
The Mexican Federal Telecommunications Commission (Cofetel) reported that as of March 3rd 36.6 million mobile phone users had registered in the National Register of Mobile Phone Users (RENAUT). It is estimated that there are about 83.5 million lines in operation in Mexico. The deadline for registration ends by April 10th, 2010, and those lines unregistered by then will be disconnected, the regulator said.
In Bolivia, mobile phone lines registration reached 50 percent, according to the Bolivian newspaper El Diario. The article notes that users seem to have no rush to register their lines as they fear their privacy and confidentiality will be compromised, meaning that a system designed for safety is being considered unsafe by Bolivians.
Telefonica Group in Argentina announced it was sending electricity generation and telecommunications equipment to Chile to facilitate the recovery of basic services in cities hit by the earthquake. The shipment includes 35 electricity generators, three V-SAT satellite stations, 37 satellite phones and 45 radio links. The radio links allows for a capacity of 200,000 mobile users and 400,000 fixed phones users. The satellite equipment, meanwhile, will enable broadband communications. The infrastructure will be transported by road in trucks that will enter the Chilean, the company says in a statement.
Carlos Zenteno, chairman of Claro Argentina (America Movil), told newspaper La Nacion that his company will invest 207 million dollars this year, of which 70 percent will be destined to 3G network expansions. In 2009, Claro invested 181 million. Claro 3G coverage now reaches 450 cities, or 80 percent of the population, and it is estimated that by 2012, its 3G network coverage will have the same reach as its 2G network.
And although QuovisMedia team believes you are well served by the international telecom papers, we thought we should brief you on some of the predictions and figures published by the main consultancy groups at the international level. Here they are:
Infonetics Research published last week the following press release: W-CDMA macro RAN equipment sales up 59% in 2009 as 3G rollouts continue. “In 2009, shifts in the mobile infrastructure market made it clear that the world continues to move to 3G and that 3G will be primarily W-CDMA-based, with revenue in all segments of the market declining except W-CDMA RAN and packet core equipment (up 59% and 7.4% year-over-year, respectively). Asia carriers are ramping up their remote radio head gear, typified by NTT DoCoMo’s recent shift toward LTE-ready, RRH-based, distributed W-CDMA architecture, adding even more fuel to the W-CDMA momentum. 3G is the main focus of the mobile arena, and is spreading fast across the GSM world,” explains Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile and FMC infrastructure at Infonetics Research. You can see the press release by clicking here.
ABI Research warns us about how mobile ARPU keeps decreasing. Good news that it will stabilize thanks to data services. Mobile end-user ARPUs dropped between 6% to 9% globally, year-over-year in 3Q-2009, compared to 3Q-2008. India, the world’s second-largest market in terms of subscribers, saw ARPUs dropping more than 10% YoY in the same period, as new operators and the introduction of per-second billing put heavy downward pressure on voice revenues. In Europe the ARPU contraction was in the range of -5 to -8%, with Austria seeing a contraction of more than 9%. However, ABI Research estimates that ARPU decline is likely to flatten out in developed markets in Europe and North America as mobile data revenue increasingly replaces falling voice revenue. Click here to read the full press release.
Market research firm, In-Stat estimates the total number of mobile VoIP users will be reach 288 million by the end of 2013. Of these, well over half will be associated with online mobile VoIP providers; under one-third will utilize mobile VoIP with 3G MVNOs or mobile operators, and 11% with WiMAX/LTE operators. Go here to read the full press release.
Enjoy the week and start preparing CTIA 2010 in Las Vegas!
QuovisMedia Team