For the third quarter of 2021, there is a slight growth in purchases made in Central America, reaching almost $100 million, with Chinese companies cornering the market by 35% by selling $346 million.
Figures from the Trade Intelligence Unit of CentralAmericaData: [GRAFICA caption="Click to interact with the graphic"]
After the session between Sutel and the operators interested in participating in the public auction of the 5G network, the businessmen ask the authorities to draw up a roadmap and a schedule that includes the recovery and availability of the required frequencies.
Claro, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), Telefónica, Call May Way, Huawei Technologies Costa Rica, Next Curve, Telecable, Viasat and Cabletica, were some of the 12 operators that attended the hearing called by the Superintendence of Telecommunications (Sutel), in which the willingness of the companies to participate in the public auction of the frequencies of the radioelectric spectrum in question was known.
Although Samsung and Apple mobile phones represent more than half of the devices used in the region's markets, there is an upward trend in the preference for devices from the Chinese brand Huawei.
An analysis of the Trade Intelligence Area at CentralAmericaData provides interesting data on the use and preference of cell phone brands in the region.
In the first half of the year, countries in the region reported $574 million in mobile phone imports, and company purchases in Hong Kong increased 84%.
Figures from the information system on the Mobile Phone Market in Central America, complied by the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: [GRAFICA caption="Click to interact with graphic"]
Last year countries in the region imported $1.269 billion worth of mobile phones, which is equivalent to an increase of 10% over the previous year.
Information from the interactive system "Cell Phone Market in Central America", compiled by the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData, [GRAFICA caption= "Click to interact with graph"]
Between January and June 2017, the region imported $590 million worth of mobile phones, 10% more than the imports in the same period in 2016.
Figures from the information system on the Mobile Phone Market in Central America, compiled by the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: [GRAFICA caption = "Click to interact with the graphic"]
Between January and September 2016 the countries in the region imported $791 million worth of cellular phones, 6% less than the imports in the same period in 2015.
Figures from the information system on themobile phone market in Central America compiled by the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: [Figure caption = "Click to interact with graphics"]
In 2015 Central American countries bought $1251 million worth of mobile phones, of which 39% came from the US, 26% from China, 19% from Hong Kong and 5% from South Korea.
Figures from the Business Intelligence unit at CentralAmericaData.COM com indicate that in 2015 the main importer of cell phones was Guatemala, with $419 million, followed by Costa Rica, which spent $364 million, El Salvador, with $181 million, and Honduras, which imported $141 million worth of mobile phones.
The Ministry of Telecommunications has announced that a tender for allocating frequencies will take place in early 2015 and plans to add a new operator to the process.
Officials added that the tender documents will be ready at the end of the semester and discussed the possibility of adding one more operator to the competition. This option has not been well received by the telecommunications companies currently taking part in the tender for whom "...
From April 1st the operator Claro will starts the new 4G mobile network service.
The phone company Claro has announced that from 1 April it will start its 4G LTE mobile network service. At the moment the company is carrying out the final tests for implementation of the service.
"The coverage area includes the sectors of La Ururca, Heredia, Escazu and Santa Ana."
Following a favorable resolution of the appeal by Movistar, the State operator has started marketing 4G cell phones.
The Manager of the Client Division at Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), Jaime Palermo, announced the launch of the 4G LTE network, which will initially be free for postpaid users in the first month.
In order to activate the service they must meet certain conditions: "Postpaid users must first check if they are in a zone covered by 4G LTE network. The second step is to confirm that the device has the ability to connect to the 4G LTE network in the 2600 MHz band (this can be corroborated in the user manual of the cell phone as not all models are able to).
Movistar's appeal accusing the ICE of concentration of 2.6 Ghz spectrum and impeding it from using the 4G network until the law suit was resolved, has been rejected.
The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad may continue marketing cellular services for its 4G network after the Administrative Court rejected an appeal by its competitor Movistar.
The arrival of new mobile services could be delayed if the uncertainty surrounding the renewal of licenses to mobile operators continues.
A report by the company GSMA, a firm that brings together more than 800 mobile operators in the world, presented a study which analyzes the state of the radio spectrum in Latin America and how the licenses are renewed for use in countries such as Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama.
Costa Rica is the regional leader in 4G data consumption through mobile devices and 4G networks.
America Movil (Claro) and Telefonica (Movistar) agree that Costa Rica is the country with the highest data traffic in Central America, this is because it is the only country that does not charge for downloading data, but rather by the speed offered by providers.
The new network of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad started with initial coverage in 23% of the territory, with speeds from 6 to 10 Mbps.
According to the customer manager of Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), Jaime Palermo, the service is focused on providing data to clients who wish to navigate at high speeds. Marketing will initially be done through Datacards.