Last year, countries in the region imported communication radios for $52 million, and Central American purchases from Mexican companies increased by 79% compared to what was reported in 2019.
Figures from the Trade Intelligence Unit of CentralAmericaData: [GRAFICA caption="Click to interact with the graph"]
The Inter-American Development Bank approved a line of credit, whose funds will be used to finance a program that seeks to increase the country's digital connectivity levels by strengthening institutional and operational capacity.
With a $70 million investment, of which $45 million will be financed by the ordinary capital of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and $25 million by the Korean Fund for the Co-financing of Infrastructure Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (KIF), the program will increase the institutional and operational capacity that will allow the development of a digital agenda and improve connectivity, through investment and improvements in the conditions for the adoption of digital infrastructure solutions, according to an official statement.
The National Registry of Persons of Guatemala tenders the services of installation of point to point links, redundant systems, dark fiber and Internet.
Guatemala Government Purchase 12489514:
"Detail of the required:
-360 point-to-point links of 5 Mbps minimum, installed between RENAP headquarters Calzada Roosevelt 13-46 zone 7 and the Registry, Auxiliary and Administrative Offices.
The Costa Rican Electricity Institute tenders the maintenance service and installations in the telecommunications network, for the western metropolitan region.
Costa Rican Government Purchase 2020LI-000002-0000400001:
"The contracted service will be carried out in the established area, in the territory covered by each plant that makes up the lines, with a scope of action in exceptional cases of 60 kilometers around the limit of the contracted area.
The lack of proper infrastructure and the lack of allocation of radio spectrum are some of the reasons why it is difficult for telecommunications companies to improve Internet connection or lower prices for services.
Internet operators in Costa Rica face adversities to improve service and provide better prices to consumers, including the deficit of appropriate infrastructure.
The mergers and acquisitions being reported in Central America are largely because not all companies in the region are willing to make the heavy investments that the transition to 5G technology will require.
The most recent register of the sale of assets of one of the Central American competitors is the case of Telefónica, which on January 24 reported that for $648 million it sold to América Móvil all the shares of Telefónica Guatemala and 99.3% of Telefónica El Salvador.
In the last eleven years in Guatemala, companies providing telecommunications services have invested just over $1.26 billion in the sector.
Figures from the Bank of Guatemala specify that Telecommunications is the fourth most important economic activity, according to the flows of Foreign Direct Investment that have reached the country, since between 2007 and 2018 an average of $105 million per year has been invested.
The percentage of the population with Internet access in Central America increased 17% between 2016 and 2018, increasing from 44% to 61%.
Data from the report "Internet in Central America 2018", compiled by the Commercial Trade Area of CentralAmericaData:
Currently, Costa Rica is the Central American country with the highest proportion of households with Internet access, with 77% of the total, followed by Panama with 67% and Honduras with 31%.
Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad is evaluating the Salvadoran market to determine if there is an opportunity to establish itself as a new broadband operator.
The state telecommunications company already has a presence in Nicaragua, where in conjunction with the state company Enatrel, it operates the company Telecomunica, which provides internet and television services.
Electrical works, telecommunications infrastructure and a supermarket of the brand Pricesmart are some of the projects for which environmental impact studies were submitted in July 2017.
Data from the interactive information system "Construction in Central America", compiled by the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData.
At the close of 2016, Comunicaciones Celulares S.A. had 52% of mobile phone users in operation, followed by Telecomunicaciones de Guatemala S.A. with 26% and Telefónica Móviles Guatemala S.A. with 22%.
The statistics bulletin for the second half of 2016, prepared by the Superintendency of Telecommunications, provides information on telephony and telecommunications in Guatemala concerning the operators: Commercial Network -ORC-, Local Network -ORL- and International Port-OPI-.
The government has announced that before the end of the year they expected to tender part of the frequency spectrum which is not currently being used.
The Morales administration plan use the 700 MHz spectrum that is currently available on broadcast television as a part of the AWS band, allocating it to telecom operators in order to improve data transmission services.
The Bank of Guatemala is putting out to tender digital phone services for the period from February 1, 2016 and January 31, 2019.
Guatemala Government Purchase 4316320:
"General characteristics:
- Digital telephony service provided through two ISDN links or RDSI by its acronym in Spanish (Red Digital de Servicios Integrados), E1.
- The Bank of Guatemala will appoint a specialist to coordinate and supervise the work of installation, programming and commissioning of the E1 ISDN links. "
Details from a report given to the Securities and Exchange Commission on the company's activities in the six Central American countries during the first quarter of 2014.
Operating revenues in Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama) during the first three months of 2014 increased by 12.1% compared to the first three months of 2013.
Movistar has invested $15 million in a latest generation fiber optic network which will interconnect overland with Central Mexico.
Movistar, the mobile phone brand of Telefónica, has invested $15 million in a fiber optic network that will cover 3,158 kilometers and will connect to Central America and Mexico by land.
Juan Castroverde manager of Movistar Panama said that "through the Central Telefónica network, companies will have greater capacity, quality, security and reliability of their data. The network will have an initial capacity of 10 Gigabits per second for data transmission, in addition to providing a variety of routes and connection points."