Over 150 Million Latin American Mobile Users by 2007 - Report

Handset sales will follow this growth path, reaching annual sales of 22 million new units by 2003. From 2004 until 2006, annual sales will vary from 19 million to 22 million new units. With many large wireless operators choosing their network migration paths in the last year, a clear picture of the handset market's evolution over the next 4 years has emerged according to the Yankee Group report, "Latin American Handset Market in Transition."

Operators owned by America Movil, TIM, and Telefonica in Mexico are migrating to GSM/GPRS. However, Vivo, the major operator in Brazil, and operators owned by BellSouth and Verizon have chosen CDMA2000 1X. Although the future for TDMA handsets is limited, TDMA will represent the majority of sales in the short term.

"The Latin American mobile market witnessed the first 2.5G initiatives in the past year," says report author Luis Minoru, Yankee Group Wireless/Mobile Latin America senior analyst. "Although the future of mobile communications lies with data services, the adoption of such services is still in the early stages. Data revenue, which comes mainly from messaging services, accounts for less than 2 percent of total mobile service revenue. Broadband data transmission is not important and the devices are still too expensive for the average consumer. This reality, combined with the economic uncertainties in Latin America, is making operators cautious regarding their investments."

The report also notes that by 2004, sales of new TDMA handsets will drop to 3.5 million. After 2004, GSM/GPRS phones will take the sales lead, thanks to the majority of TDMA operators choosing GSM/GPRS and the entry of new operators offering mobile services on GSM/GPRS networks."

Posted to the site on 26th August 2003