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Wireless Federation » Mexico’s Mobile Market Profile

Mexico’s Mobile Market Profile

  • August 12th, 2008
  • 5:52 am

Mexico’s mobile industry is growing at a yearly rate of around 22%, reaching an estimated 60% penetration by September 2007. Mexico market is driven by a booming GSM market. Three major mobile operators: América Móvil’s Telcel and Telefónica’s Movistar offer GSM services, while Grupo Iusacell (recently merged with Unefón) uses CDMA technology. A fourth operator, Nextel de México, operates a mobile trunking system using the iDEN mobile communications standard. Despite increased competition since 2000, Telcel still dominates market share. Between 2003 and 2007, Mexican mobile operators have been upgrading their networks to offer high-capacity and high-speed data services, such as EDGE, 1xRTT and 1x EV-DO.

Highlights of 2Q ‘08 Mexico Mobile Forecast include:

*  Total subscribers in Mexico will increase from our projected 79.2 million in 2008 to a forecasted 98.5 million in 2010. The wireless penetration level of the country will continue rising and we expect it to reach 91.5% in 2010.

* Telcel will continue to be the largest operator in the country. We expect it to serve 66.6 million out of 98.5 million subscribers in Mexico in 2010. We are also forecasting that Telcel will enjoy the highest EBITDA margin of 55.0% in 2010.

* However, Telcel’s market share (by subscribers) is expected to decline from 70.3% in 2008 to 67.6% in 2010 as its competitors - Movistar Mexico and Nextel - continue gaining market shares.

* In 2010, the average ARPU in Mexico will be US$ 17.96 per month, or the highest ARPU in our seven-country Latin America coverage list. While the largest operator, Telcel, will register an ARPU level of US$ 16.71, we are forecasting that Nextel will receive a much higher ARPU of $65.38 per month in 2010.

Statistics as follows:

Operators           Subscribers                  Ownership

  • Telcel           52.852 (June 2008)         América Móvil (100%)
  • Movistar        3.306 (March 2008)        Telefónica
  • Iusacell           3.97 (March 2008)         Grupo Salinas (76%), Publicly Traded (23%)
  • NEXTEL           2.2697 (March 2008)       NIL Holdings

Source: Wikipedia.org


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