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 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.
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.
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."
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.
With an investment of $1.1 billion it will connect to Brazil, Colombia, the United States, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
The company announced that it has completed the installation of a submarine fiber optic cable which guarantee services. This project will connect Brazil, Colombia, the USA, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) will build a new undersea communications cable in the Caribbean.
The company stated that they seek to develop regional clusters in Central America and the Caribbean. This area is a key corridor for data transit between South America and the main hubs in the United States.
Expected to be operational in early 2011, “the cable will link Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and the western British Virgin Islands, also linking to the Dominican Republic, a key market for the company”, reported Terra.com.
The manufacturing sector as a whole saw a decline in FDI due to a sharp drop in flows to Central America and the Caribbean.
In Central America and the Caribbean (other than financial centres), the decline in FDI inflows was largely due to a 20% fall in flows to Mexico, which mainly resulted from a halving of inflows to the manufacturing sector (CNIE, 2009).
Telefónica analyzes the possibility of expanding the cable SAm-1, so that it covers El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
The sub-marine communications cable SAm-1, from the telecommunications company Telefónica, that extends more than 27,000 kilometers from the United States to Argentina and Chile, could be increased by another 1,600 kilometers to connect El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica as well as Acapulco, Mexico.
Report Buyer, the online destination for business intelligence for major industry sectors, has added a new report showing that poverty in Central America is more widespread than in the rest of Latin America, and this is reflected in the development of telecommunications.
“2008 Latin America - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband in Central America” reports that apart from Costa Rica, fixed-line teledensity in the Central American nations is lower than average for Latin America, while in mobile telephony, only El Salvador and Panama are slightly above the regional average. Nevertheless, all telecoms markets are growing.