Fixed phone line (unlimited calls to mobiles), Satellite or Cable TV, Broadband Internet and a free Dell Laptop from $37 per month.
In the first half of 2008, there were 107.142 Internet users in El Salvador. One year later, there were 140.321, a 31% increase.
Waldo Hooker, Marketing Manager at Telefónica Móviles El Salvador, remarks that "the market has been growing thanks to the offers and benefits users receive".
Costa Rica's mobile telephony market won't be open to competition until 2011.
In the past 10 years, Costa Rica has been losing what was a privileged position in telecommunications. Statistics from the International Telecommunications Union show that the country, with 1.800.000 mobile phone subscribers, is ranked 160th in the list of 225 countries.
With 42 mobile phone lines per 100 inhabitants, Costa Rica is way below its Central American neighbors. Panama has 115, El Salvador 113, Guatemala 109, Honduras 85, Nicaragua 55. In the American continent, only Cuba and Haiti fare worse.
Broadband access to Internet is key for development, and mobile telephony seems the optimal way of making Internet available everywhere.
The upcoming opening of the Costa Rica telecommunications market could bring massive broadband access to the Internet, without relying on a physical cable, through third and fourth generation mobile telephony.
Sebastián Cabello is the regulations manager of the GSM Association, a global entity that groups network and mobile terminal manufacturers. He explained to Elfinancierocr.com: "The vast amount of cell phone users worldwide would make it easier to bring broadband Internet to any corner of a country, enabling more data transmission capacity, and even video."