Honduras - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband

Executive summary

Besides being the second poorest country in Central America, Honduras has an extremely unequal distribution of income. About 70% of the population lives below the poverty line.

Teledensity is about 14% lower than average for Central America. Nevertheless, it is better than one would expect based on the country’s other economic indicators. Mobile penetration is about average for Central America and quite high compared with GDP per capita.

Fixed-line telephony has been partly liberalised, with long-distance telephony open to competition, but local services are still a monopoly of state-owned Hondutel and its franchise partners. Laws governing full liberalisation have been delayed amid allegations of corruption and political wrangling over the role of Hondutel.

The mobile sector, on the other hand, is highly competitive, with four operators offering services. The market leader is Millicom’s Tigo, followed by América Móvil’s Claro. Digicel entered the market in November 2008.

The Internet has been slow to develop in Honduras. ADSL is still primarily used by corporate customers. Nevertheless, the demand for broadband is increasing.

Key highlights:

• VoIP telephony services are more readily available than normal phone service and significantly cheaper. For more information, see chapter 6.3.2, page 13.
  
• Three companies have received WiMAX licences. There are good investment opportunities for wireless DSL and WiMAX, since the fixed-line and cable networks have insufficient capacity. For more information, see chapter 8.1, page 15.
  
• Millicom International, the leading mobile provider in Honduras through Tigo, has acquired cable TV and triple player Amnet. For more information, see chapter 9.2.1, page 16.
  
• Honduras is the first and only country in Central America to have chosen a Digital Terrestrial TV standard: the government has opted for the US ATSC. For more information, see chapter 9.3, page 17.
  
• Both Claro and Tigo have launched 3G mobile services based on WCDMA technology.
  

Lucia Bibolini

April 2009

Table of Contents

• 1. Executive summary
  
• 2. Key statistics
  
  • 2.1 Country Overview
    
• 3. Telecommunications Market
  
  • 3.1 Overview of Honduran telecom market
    
• 4. Regulatory Environment
  
  • 4.1 Regulatory authority
    
    • 4.1.1 Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Conatel)
      
  • 4.2 Privatisation
    
  • 4.3 DR-CAFTA
    
  • 4.4 Foreign investment
    
  • 4.5 Telecom sector liberalisation in Honduras
    
  • 4.6 ‘Telephony For All’ program
    
  • 4.7 Number portability
    
• 5. Telecom Network Operators in Honduras
  
  • 5.1 Hondutel
    
  • 5.2 Multifon
    
  • 5.3 Tele+ (Comunitel)
    
• 6. Telecommunications Infrastructure
  
  • 6.1 National telecom networks
    
    • 6.1.1 Public telephones
      
  • 6.2 International infrastructure
    
    • 6.2.1 Interconnection with other Central American countries
      
    • 6.2.2 Submarine cable networks
      
    • 6.2.3 Satellite networks
      
  • 6.3 Infrastructure developments
    
    • 6.3.1 Wireless Local Loop (WLL)
      
    • 6.3.2 IP and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
      
• 7. Internet Market
  
  • 7.1 Overview
    
    • 7.1.1 Internet statistics
      
• 8. Broadband Market
  
  • 8.1 Overview
    
• 9. Convergence
  
  • 9.1 Overview of media convergence
    
  • 9.2 Pay TV market
    
    • 9.2.1 Cable TV
      
    • 9.2.2 Satellite TV
      
  • 9.3 Digital terrestrial TV
    
• 10. Mobile Communications
  
  • 10.1 Overview of the Honduran mobile market
    
    • 10.1.1 Mobile statistics
      
  • 10.2 Mobile technologies and data services
    
    • 10.2.1 Third generation (3G) mobile
      
  • 10.3 Major mobile operators
    
    • 10.3.1 Tigo / Celtel (Millicom)
      
    • 10.3.2 Claro / Sercom (América Móvil)
      
    • 10.3.3 Hondutel
      
    • 10.3.4 Digicel
      
• 11. Related reports
  

• Table 1 – Country statistics Honduras – 2008
• Table 2 – Telephone network statistics – 2008
• Table 3 – Internet user statistics – 2007
• Table 4 – Mobile statistics – 2008
• Table 5 – National telecommunications authority
• Table 6 – Market share of fixed lines in service - 2003 - 2007
• Table 7 – Number of operators: fixed, mobile, data, ISP and CATV markets – 2004 - 2007
• Table 8 – Hondutel - fixed lines in service - 1997 - 2007
• Table 9 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity - 1997 - 2008
• Table 10 – Public telephones - 1997 - 2008
• Table 11 – Cybercafé and CCI points – 2002 - 2007
• Table 12 – Internet users and penetration rate – 1997 - 2007
• Table 13 – Internet subscribers and penetration rate – 2002 - 2007
• Table 14 – Pay TV subscribers and penetration rates - 2003 - 2007
• Table 15 – Mobile subscribers by operator and technology - March 2009
• Table 16 – Mobile subscribers and penetration rate - 1997 - 2009
• Table 17 – Mobile operators’ market share - 2002 - 2009
• Table 18 – Mobile prepaid/postpaid ratio - 1997 - 2009
• Table 19 – Tigo – mobile subscribers - 2000 - 2009
• Table 20 – Claro – mobile subscribers – 2003 - 2009
• Table 21 – Hondutel – mobile subscribers – 2007 - 2009

• Exhibit 1 – Major submarine cable networks connecting Guatemala