Report: Mobile Revs Grow 12% in 2006 to US$13.3bn
Mexico's five mobile operators saw combined revenues increase 12% in 2006 to US$13.3bn compared to 2005, according to a report from local consultancy The Competitive Intelligence Unit.
In total, the country had some 56.6mn mobile users at end-2006 compared to 46.6mn at end-2005, an increase of 21.4%, and a mobile penetration of around 52%.
Of the five operators, Telcel of América Móvil (NYSE: AMX) still dominates the market, accounting for 76.2% of total subscribers and 73.6% of revenues compared to 77% and 74.2%, respectively, in 2005.
However, the company has faced increased competition as Nextel, Movistar, Iusacell and Unefon increased investments in marketing, giving the operators subscriber market shares of 2.7%, 15.1%, 3.6% and 2.3%, respectively.
Mexicans will likely continue migrating to mobile telephony services from fixed line, which reached 20mn lines at the end of last year, the report said.
Prepaid customers still dominate the market, accounting for 89.5% or 50.7mn of all subscribers.
The findings were in line with statistics of Mexico's telecoms regulator Cofetel, which also showed there were 56mn mobile subscribers."
Posted to the site on 16th March 2007
