Only 15% of Mobile Phones Sold are New Handsets

New handsets account for only 15% of total mobile handset sales in the Peruvian market, local paper Gestión reported Nextel's commercial operations VP Luis Deza as saying.

"This is an industry that acquires used handsets from developed countries, changes pieces or replaces damaged parts, paints them, and then sells them in countries such as ours," Deza said.

Deza said Nextel, a unit of NII Holdings, expects to see the overall number of users in the country grow to 8.5 million by the end of the year. According to regulator Osiptel, Peru hit 6.76 million users in June 2006.

"It is important that the number of lines continues to grow, but also the average number of minutes used per month," Deza added.

According to the executive, mobile users spend an average of 70 minutes on the phone a month.

The low usage is partly due to interconnection rates charged for calling a user of another mobile operator currently running at US$0.18 per minute, which is "the highest in the region." The optimal charge would be US$0.06 per minute, Deza claimed.

BNAmericas.com"

Posted to the site on 8th September 2006