Latin American Market Overview
The mobile markets of Latin America and the Caribbean grew by 23.5% in terms of subscriptions over the twelve months leading up to March 2008, reach over 400 million subscriptions. In terms of net additions the figure is nearly 80 million mobile subscriptions for the year to June 2008.
Naturally, Brazil continues to be the largest country in the Americas by far in terms of total mobile subscriptions, with over 127.2 million subscriptions at end 1Q08 according to informa Telecoms and Media’s WCIS. Brazil added over 25.5 million subscriptions in the year to 1Q08.
Argentina, Brazil and Chile account for almost 60% of the region's broadband subscriptions. By early 2007, broadband subscriptions exceeded dial-up accounts in all of Latin America's major markets. ADSL continues to be the prevalent broadband technology in Latin America, with DSL expected to account for two thirds of the broadband market by end the end of 2012.
The Latin American broadband market has much untapped growth potential remaining. However, operators are expected to struggle to sign up new subscriptions at a rate that the under-penetrated nature of the market would suggest is possible. Broadband provision remains in the hands of incumbents and a few large players for the most part.
Without improvements to the fundamental economic conditions in Latin American countries, and/or if there is no increase in subsidies covering both the hardware required for broadband and the broadband services themselves, the saturation point for broadband services in the consumer market could be at 40% of households across Latin America. This would create a represent a very significant digital divide both between Latin America and other world regions, and within Latin America itself. Governments and operators face significant challenges around progressing beyond this level of market penetration.
