Chile - Mobile Market - Overview, Statistics and Forecasts

Synopsis

Chile’s mobile penetration is one of the highest in Latin America, but lags behind Panama, Uruguay, and Argentina. Three major mobile companies serve the Chilean market: Telefónica’s Movistar, Almendral’s Entel, and América Móvil’s Claro. Two new market entrants, Nextel Chile and VTR, hold licences for 3G services. Chile’s mobile phone tariffs are among the cheapest in Latin America, with a basic plan costing about 1.3% of an average wage. Chile is also the Latin American country with the cheapest smart phones compared with per capita income. Chile’s mobile broadband market has passed the one million-subscriber milestone, and accounts for about 36% of all broadband subscribers (including fixed and mobile). An LTE auction is scheduled for December 2011. Accompanied by key market statistics and analyses, this report provides an overview of the market and a brief profile of mobile operators. It also contains scenario forecasts for the years 2015 and 2020. 

Key developments: Nextel and VTR are rolling out 3G networks; to cut rollout costs, VTR signs a roaming agreement with Movistar and a sale and leaseback agreement with American Tower International; Subtel plans to auction 2.6GHz spectrum for LTE/4G services by end-2011; GTD negotiates an MVNO agreement with Movistar.

 Companies covered in this report include Movistar, Entel, Claro, VTR, Nextel, and GTD.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. Overview of Chile’s mobile market
  • 2.1 Mobile statistics
  • 2.2 Mobile market analysis
• 3. Regulatory issues
  • 3.1 3G spectrum auctions
  • 3.2 Mobile number portability (MNP)
  • 3.3 Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs)
• 4. Mobile technologies
  • 4.1 Overview
  • 4.2 Second Generation (2G) mobile
  • 4.3 Third Generation (3G) mobile
  • 4.4 Long-term evolution (LTE)
  • 4.5 Mobile handsets/smart phones
    • 4.5.1 BlackBerry
    • 4.5.2 iPhone 3G
• 5. Mobile operators
  • 5.1 Movistar (Telefónica Móviles Chile)
  • 5.2 Entel PCS
  • 5.3 Claro Chile (América Móvil)
  • 5.4 Nextel Chile
  • 5.5 VTR
• 6. Mobile voice services
  • 6.1 Prepaid
• 7. Mobile messaging
  • 7.1 Short message service (SMS)
• 8. Mobile broadband
• 9. Mobile satellite
• 10. Forecasts – mobile market – 2015; 2020
  • 10.1 Overview
  • 10.2 Scenario 1 – higher mobile market growth
  • 10.3 Scenario 2 – lower mobile market growth
  • 10.4 Notes on scenario forecasts
• 11. Related reports

• Table 1 – Mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 1995 - 2011
• Table 2 – Evolution of mobile ARPU in Chile – major operators – 2007 - 2010
• Table 3 – 3G subscribers and penetration – 2006 - 2011
• Table 4 – 3G subscribers and market share – 2010
• Table 5 – Mobile operators’ market share– 1999 - 2011
• Table 6 – Movistar – mobile subscribers – 1999 - 2011
• Table 7 – Entel PCS – mobile subscribers – 1999 - 2011
• Table 8 – Claro – mobile subscribers – 1999 - 2011
• Table 9 – Mobile prepaid/postpaid ratio – 1999 - 2011
• Table 10 – SMS messages sent – 2003 - 2010
• Table 11 – Mobile broadband subscribers and penetration – 2007 - 2011
• Table 12 – Entel – mobile broadband subscribers – 2007 - 2011
• Table 13 – Forecast mobile subscribers – higher growth scenario – 2015; 2020
• Table 14 – Forecast mobile subscribers – lower growth scenario – 2015; 2020

• Chart 1 – Operators’ mobile ARPU – 2007 - 2011
• Chart 2 – 3G market share at a glance – 2010
• Chart 3 – Mobile market share at a glance – March 2011

• Exhibit 1 – Telefónica Móviles Chile at a glance
• Exhibit 2 – Entel PCS at a glance
• Exhibit 3 – Claro Chile at a glance