Costa Rica - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband- Statistics and Analyses

Executive summary

Costa Rica sees consolidation in the cable telecom sector

Costa Rica’s liberalised telecom sector has seen substantial growth in all sectors in recent years. Although the state-owned operator ICE remains the dominant provider of fixed-line services, the regional operators Claro and Movistar are significant players in the important mobile services market.

The number of fixed-lines fell for a number of years though more recently the decline has been offset by growing consumer use of VoIP services. This was stimulated by the 2014 hike in tariffs for fixed-line calls.

Costa Rica’s broadband market is the most developed in Central America, with the highest broadband penetration for this sub-region. Geographical distribution however is unequal, with a much higher digital gap than in the case of telephone services. Compared with the whole of Latin America, Costa Rica’s broadband penetration lags behind Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and some Caribbean islands.

There was a steady increase in overall telecom sector revenue for a number of years, peaking at 24% 2014 though this has since fallen, being a more moderate 4.2% in 2016 and 3% in 2017. Fixed-line voice services account for about 5% of revenue while revenue from VoIP services, though increasing sharply in recent years, still accounts for only 1%.

The Costa Rican telecom sector has showed greater resilience than most others in the region, and with the implementation of number portability there is greater scope for increased competition in coming years.

Key developments:

ICE secures access to Telia Carrier’s Central America backbone network;
Movistar and Claro secure licenses at auction;
Liberty Latin America (LLA) acquires an 80% stake in Cabletica;
ICE investing more in multi-technology NGN project;
Coopesantos launches FttP services in areas of San Pablo, San Marcos and Santa Maria;
Regulator adopts LRIC model to calculate access and interconnection rates;
Report includes the regulator’s market data reports for 2017; telcos’ financial and operating data updates, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report include:

Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), RASCA, Tigo, Cable Tica.

Table of Contents

1. Executive summary
2. Key statistics
3. Country overview
4. Telecommunications market
- 4.1 Market analysis – latest developments
5. Regulatory environment
- 5.1 Background
  - 5.1.1 General Telecommunications Law
- 5.2 Regulatory authority
  - 5.2.1 Sutel
- 5.3 Government policies
  - 5.3.1 Sector liberalisation
- 5.4 Universalisation Fund (Fonatel)
- 5.5 Interconnect
- 5.6 Access
- 5.7 Number Portability (NP)
- 5.8 Tariffs
- 5.9 DR-CAFTA
6. Fixed network operators
- 6.1 ICE
- 6.2 Claro
7. Telecommunications infrastructure
- 7.1 National telecom network
- 7.2 Internet Exchange Points (IXPs)
8. International infrastructure
- 8.1 Terrestrial networks
- 8.2 Submarine cable networks
- 8.3 Satellite networks
- 8.4 Infrastructure developments
  - 8.4.1 IP and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
- 8.5 Smart infrastructure
9. Wholesale
10. Broadband market
- 10.1 Introduction and statistical overview
  - 10.1.1 Market analysis
  - 10.1.2 Broadband statistics
- 10.2 Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) networks
  - 10.2.1 RACSA
- 10.3 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks
- 10.4 Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) and Fibre-To-The-Home (FttH)
- 10.5 Other fixed-line broadband services
  - 10.5.1 Fixed wireless (WiMAX, WiBro, Wi-Fi)
  - 10.5.2 Internet via satellite
11. Mobile communications
- 11.1 Market analysis
  - 11.1.1 Mobile statistics
- 11.2 Mobile data
  - 11.2.1 SMS/MMS
- 11.3 Mobile broadband
- 11.4 Regulatory issues
  - 11.4.1 Spectrum auctions
  - 11.4.2 Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
  - 11.4.3 Roaming
- 11.5 Mobile infrastructure
  - 11.5.1 Overview
  - 11.5.2 Digital networks
- 11.6 Major mobile operators
  - 11.6.1 ICE (Kölbi, ICE Cellular)
  - 11.6.2 Claro (América Móvil)
  - 11.6.3 Movistar (Telefónica Costa Rica)
  - 11.6.4 Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs)
12. Related reports

Table 1 – Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities - Costa Rica – 2018 (e)
Table 2 – Evolution of GDP in Costa Rica – 2000 - 2018
Table 3 – Number of authorised telecom service operators – 2011 - 2017
Table 4 – Telecom sector revenue and annual change– 2011 - 2017
Table 5 – Revenue by sector – 2012 - 2017
Table 6 – Revenue market share by sector – 2012 - 2017
Table 7 – Fonatel investment in telecoms – 2013 - 2017
Table 8 – ICE financial data – 2010 - 2017
Table 9 – Historic - Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 1997 - 2009
Table 10 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2010 - 2018
Table 11 – PSTN lines and penetration – 2010 - 2018
Table 12 – Proportion of traditional fixed and VoIP lines – 2012 - 2017
Table 13 – Fixed-line telephony revenue – 2012 - 2017
Table 14 – Fixed-line telephony and VoIP ARPU – 2012 - 2017
Table 15 – Fixed-line telephony and VoIP traffic – 2010 - 2017
Table 16 – Average telephony traffic per subscriber (fixed-line and VoIP) – 2010 - 2017
Table 17 –International bandwidth – 2007 - 2016
Table 18 – Active VoIP subscriptions and penetration – 2010 - 2018
Table 19 –VoIP market share by operator – 2013 - 2017
Table 20 – VoIP services revenue– 2011 - 2017
Table 21 – Wholesale fixed-line broadband lines – 2015 - 2017
Table 22 – Fixed-line broadband revenue and ARPU – 2011 - 2017
Table 23 – Proportion of fixed internet connections by data rate - 2015 - 2017
Table 24 – Historic - Internet users and user penetration – 1997 - 2009
Table 25 – Internet users and user penetration – 2010 - 2018
Table 26 – Fixed broadband subscribers and penetration – 2000 - 2018
Table 27 – Historic - Broadband market share by technology – 2000 – 2009
Table 28 –Fixed-line broadband market share by technology – 2015 – 2017
Table 29 – Fixed-line internet traffic and annual change– 2013 - 2017
Table 30 – Cable modem subscribers and household penetration – 2000 - 2018
Table 31 – DSL subscribers and household penetration – 2002 - 2018
Table 32 – Fibre broadband subscribers – 2010 - 2018
Table 33 – WiMAX subscribers – 2009 - 2017
Table 34 – Average traffic per mobile subscriber - 2012 – 2017
Table 35 – Mobile market share by operator - 2011 - 2017
Table 36 – Mobile market traffic - 2011 - 2017
Table 37 –Mobile revenue by service - 2012 - 2017
Table 38 –Mobile revenue by service - 2012 – 2017
Table 39 –Proportion of mobile service revenue by type - 2011 - 2017
Table 40 – Historic - Mobile subscribers and penetration - 1998 - 2009
Table 41 – Mobile subscribers and penetration - 2010 - 2018
Table 42 – Proportion of prepaid and postpaid subscribers - 2010 - 2017
Table 43 – Prepaid and contract subscribers - 2010 - 2017
Table 44 – Prepaid and contract mobile ARPU - 2014 - 2017
Table 45 – SMS and MMS traffic - 2011 - 2017
Table 46 – SMS/MMS revenue - 2011 - 2017
Table 47 – Mobile internet subscribers and penetration - 2009 - 2018
Table 48 – Mobile internet revenue - 2013 - 2017
Table 49 – Mobile internet traffic - 2013 - 2017
Table 50 – Mobile number portings - 2013 - 2017
Table 51 – Roaming revenue (SMS/MMS and voice) - 2013 - 2017
Table 52 – ICE mobile subscribers - 2012 - 2017
Table 53 – Claro mobile subscribers - 2012 - 2017
Table 54 – Movistar mobile subscribers - 2012 - 2017
Table 55 – MVNO mobile subscribers by provider - 2011 - 2017

Chart 1 – Revenue by sector – 2012 – 2017
Chart 2 – Revenue market share by sector – 2012 – 2017
Chart 3 – ICE financial data – 2010 – 2017
Chart 4 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2005 – 2018
Chart 5 – Broadband subscribers and penetration – 2000 – 2018
Chart 6 – Cable modem subscribers and household penetration – 2000 – 2018
Chart 7 – DSL subscribers and household penetration – 2002 – 2018
Chart 8 – Mobile market share by operator - 2011 – 2017
Chart 9 – Mobile subscribers and penetration - 2005 – 2018
Chart 10 – Prepaid and contract subscribers - 2010 – 2017

Exhibit 1 – Major submarine cable networks connecting Costa Rica

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Focus Report Profile

Technologies

Broadband Fixed
Broadcasting
Companies (Major Players)
Internet
Mobile & Wireless Broadband and Media
Mobile Communications (voice and infrastructure)
Regulations & Government Policies
Strategies & Analyses (Industry & Markets)
Telecoms Infrastructure

Number of pages 49

Status Current

Last updated 31 Oct 2018
Update History

Analyst: Henry Lancaster

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