El Salvador' Mobile Market Likely to Bill US$5.5bn Thru 2012

El Salvador's mobile market will likely bill US$5.5bn from 2007 through 2012 as operators start looking more to value added services to differentiate themselves from their competitors, according to a study from consultancy Signals Telecoms Consulting.

Currently operators compete primarily on price, a practice Signals analyst Elias Vicente says is unsustainable. Looking forward Vicente expects value added services to be the way operators will capture higher value customers as well as retain customers.

In 2012, Vicente expects revenues for the sector to reach at least US$900mn.

El Salvador stands out from many of its neighbors in that it has four operators, including most of the biggest international conglomerates. Tigo, of Luxembourg's Millicom International Cellular, Claro, of Mexico's America Movil, Movistar, of Spain's Telefonica, and Caribbean mobile group Digicel all have mobile operations in the country.

At the end of 2006 the market had grown 59.7% to 3.85mn subscribers compared to end-2005, according to telecoms regulator Siget.

Posted to the site on 13th September 2007