The data was released by the Superintendency of Telecommunications (SIT). "Of every 10 active phones, nine are prepaid and only one uses a payment plan by the company providing the service," reported Prensalibre.com.

According to these statistics, Tigo reports 9.6 million prepaid lines, ie 49% of all subscribers. This is followed by the company Claro with 6.1 million users, giving them 21% and Telefónica with 4.2 million subscribers, representing 20.2%.

From 2004 until 2013 mobile phone use has grown by 565%. In 2012, 20.7 million users were registered, which is a growth of 6.7% compared to the previous year.

According to industry expert, Ricardo Flores, the ease of buying a prepaid line and the availability of financial resources for purchase by customers are the main reasons that this format dominates.

Source: prensalibre.com

More on this topic

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The mobile phone market in Guatemala still has a preference for prepaid systems, or top up payment cards, with the number of the number of lines that operate under this mode up to July 2014 totaling 20,548,000 .

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After the opening up of the telecommunications market, the number of postpaid cellular lines are down from 1.6 million in 2010 to 1.1 million as at the end of 2012.

Prepaid connections currently represent 80% of the lines that exist in the country, while two years ago the figure was barely 49%, according to a study by the Telecommunications Superintendency (Sutel).

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September 2010

Tigo, Claro, Movistar and Digicel have trimmed some of their prices up to 50%, looking for a larger slice of the telecommunications market.

They have implemented various promotions, ranging from lower international, land and mobile phone calls, internet access and cable television to cell phones that can be acquired from as low as $7.

Telephony Rates Lowered in El Salvador

December 2009

Three companies decided to reduce mobile phone rates for calls between the same network.

The reductions go from 40% to 50%, depending on each customer's calling plan.

"6 million customers from Claro, Tigo and Telefónica will benefit from these measures, while Digicel is still considering if they join this agreement", reported Elsalvador.com.