(Sept.1, 2010) Costa Rica's telecommunications market offers
opportunities with its new liberalization, opening the door for
competition across all segments and boosting mobile penetration to 136
percent by 2015 with prepaid subscriptions, according to a new report
from Pyramid Research.
The report, "Costa Rica: Liberalization Will More Than Double Mobile
Subscribers by 2015," offers a precise profile of the country's
telecommunications, media, and technology sectors based on proprietary
data from the firm's research. It provides detailed competitive
analysis of both the fixed and mobile sectors, tracks the market shares
of technologies and services, and monitors the introduction and spread
of new technologies,said the company.
Costa Rica is the last country in Latin America to liberalize its
telecommunications industry. Now, the regulator in Costa Rica has been
quite busy with the liberalization of fixed and mobile services taking
place. "Costa Rica is auctioning three mobile licenses over the next
few months, and the process is expected to be completed before year
end," said Jose Magana, senior analyst at Pyramid Research. "New
regulation includes number portability and infrastructure sharing."
"Mobile penetration of the population closed at 52 percent in 2009, one
of the lowest rates in Latin America and not consistent with the income
level of the population," said Magana. "We forecast that after
liberalization, mobile penetration will advance to 136 percent by 2015
with prepaid subscriptions accounting for 79 percent of the total, and
that mobile revenue will advance to $831 million by 2015 from $603
million in 2009, with gains coming mostly from data services, such as
mobile broadband."
Due to the competitiveness of the new liberalized 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 percent 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," added
Magana.
The report was prepared before telecom officials in Costa Rica said
Aug.31that the concession of spectrums for cell companies might not be
finalized for a year,if then.
The report is priced at $990. Readers may download an excerpt of this report HERE!
Latin exports predicted to grow 21.4%
For The CAFTA Report
(Sept. 3, 2010) Latin American and Caribbean exports will grow
21.4 percent this year, jumping from -22.6% in 2009 and driven mainly
by South American sales of prime materials, according to estimates of a
new report released Thursday.
The study "Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Economy
2009-2010: A crisis generated in the centre and a recovery driven by
the emerging economies" states that this boom is largely due to
purchases from Asia, particularly China, and the normalization of
United States demand.
Regional exports to China rose from -2.2percent in the first semester of 2009 to 44.8 percent during the same period this year.
However, there are significant differences within the region. Growth
has been much greater in countries that export natural resources
(agricultural, livestock and mining products), namely South American
nations, while it has been slower in countries that import basic
commodities and depend on tourism and remittances, such as Central
American and the Caribbean economies. The report is by the Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
The differences per subregion are also significant, according to the
study estimates: This year, exports from Mercosur are expected to
increase 23.4 percent and those from Andean nations 29.5percent, but
sales from the Central American Common Market will expand only 10.8
percent. Exports from Mexico, for example, will rise 16percent and from
Panama 10.1 percent, but sales from Chile are estimated to grow 32.6
percent.
The most notable upswing from the worst period of the crisis in 2009 is
expected in the Caribbean Community, whose exports are estimated to
leap from -43.6 percent that year to 23.7 percent in 2010.
The report also examines trade developments in the region over the past
decade, concluding that export growth during those ten years was slower
than in the 1990s and lower than in other developing regions, both in
value and volume. However, the region took two different routes during
that time: South America doubled export growth, while in Mexico and
Central America it dropped over 50 percent.
This disparity is largely due to the fact that the exports that most
increased were natural resources from South America, at the expense of
manufactured products and services with varying degrees of
technological content. According to the report, the subregion has
reverted to an export structure based on prime materials similar to
that of 20 years ago.
While in 1999 natural resources made up 26.7 percent of total exports
from the region, in 2009 they composed 38.8 percent of the total.
The difference in the growth rates of natural resource exports and
manufactured goods realigned the relative weight of Mexico's exports,
on the one hand, and sales from South America, on the other.
The participation of Mexico in the region's total exports fell from 40
percent in 2000 to 30 percent in 2009, while Brazil increased its
participation from 13 percent to nearly 20 percent during the same
period. Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru also expanded their
participation in total exports based on the sale of natural resources.
The region has been unable to improve the quality of its international
insertion and the expansion of natural resource-related sectors does
not seem to have contributed sufficiently to the creation of new
technological capacities, states the report.
"The diversification of exports, a strong boost to competitiveness and
innovation and greater regional cooperation will allow Latin America
and the Caribbean to improve the quality of its insertion in the global
economy, close productivity gaps and capitalize the opportunities of
international trade in order to grow with more equality," said Alicia
Bárcena of the commission during the launching of the report at
its headquarters in Chile.
