Latin America will account for over 50 million 4G subscribers by end of 2017 3G to dominate mobile broadband in the years to come

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

MONTERREY, Mexico, and BROCKENHURST, England, June 26, 2012 - Latin America will account for 51 million 4G subscribers by the end of 2017, according to the most recent report published by Maravedis-Rethink entitled "4G Latin America Analysis and Forecasts 2012-2017."

 

"With only five small commercial LTE deployments in the region so far, 4G market adoption is rather slow and dominated by LTE" said Cintia Garza, author of the report. "4G market adoption will continue to be slow in the next two years due to a number of factors, including a slow spectrum allocation process, a rather conservative attitude by dominant mobile carriers towards 4G, a low ARPU and the dominance of prepaid in the region." 

"3G carriers in the region are rather conservative with technology adoption, while Greenfield operators don't have the sufficient resources to drive the market," Garza added. Latin American operators are faced with the challenge of monetizing their network investments and making profits in low-ARPU mobile markets while MVNOs and OTT players are threatening their revenues.

In this context, multimode devices will be crucial for market adoption. The research reveals that 82% of the total 4G devices activated in Latin America by 2017 will be dual-mode, supporting LTE + Legacy (2G/3G). On the other hand, only 20% of mobile users are postpaid subscribers. "This is a significant factor for mobile broadband uptake as most users have to fund their own devices," commented Maravedis-Rethink research director Caroline Gabriel

OTHER KEY FINDINGS:

* América Móvil (38%) and Telefónica (25%)represent two thirds of the regional total mobile subscriber base and will dominate the 4G/LTE market

* WiMAX operators have expressed concern that there are too few WiMAX devices to satisfy their needs, and are now establishing migration strategies towards TD-LTE

* 700MHz, 2.1GHz and 2.6GHz. 2.6GHz will be the most widely used frequency bands for LTE in the region 

* CAPEX for 4G in the region is expected to reach an accumulated $13 billion by 2017