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

Executive summary

Costa Rica sees two operators secure mobile spectrum at 2017 auction

Costa Rica’s liberalised telecom sector has seen substantial growth in all sectors in recent years. Although competition was slow to develop there is now effective competition in all sectors. The state owned operator ICE remains the dominant provider of fixed-line services, while 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 has been stimulated by the recent 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 3% in 2016. 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%. Total investment by operators has fallen in recent years, from 2.2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2012 to only 0.7% in 2016. Overall sector revenue has accounted for 3% of GDP in the three years since 2014.

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

The DTT market continues to develop, with the first digital broadcast made in 2012, though there are as yet few subscribers to the service. The switch to DTTV is expected to be completed by the end of 2017.

Key developments:

Comptroller General approves the 2017 multi-spectrum auction, with Movistar and Claro securing licenses; regulator prepares tender for an additional 15 projects funded by Fonatel; ICE investing more in multi-technology NGN project; Coopesantos launches FttP services in areas San Pablo, San Marcos and Santa Maria; regulator expected to auction 100MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band by late 2018; Telefónica launches OTT Movistar Play service; regulator determines that there is sufficient competition in several telecom market segments; Sutel adopts LRIC model to calculate access and interconnection rates; report includes the regulator’s market data reports to 2016; telcos’ financial and operating data updates to Q2 2017, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report include:

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

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 Interconnection with other Central American countries
- 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 – Country statistics Costa Rica – 2017 (e)
Table 2 – Telephone network statistics – 2017 (e)
Table 3 – Internet user statistics – 2017 (e)
Table 4 – Broadband statistics – 2017 (e)
Table 5 – Mobile statistics – 2017 (e)
Table 6 – National telecommunications authority
Table 7 – Evolution of GDP in Costa Rica – 2000 - 2017
Table 8 – Number of authorised telecom service operators – 2011 - 2016
Table 9 – Telecom sector revenue and annual change– 2011 - 2016
Table 10 – Revenue by sector – 2012 - 2016
Table 11 – Revenue market share by sector – 2012 - 2016
Table 12 – ICE financial data – 2010 - 2014
Table 13 – Historic - Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 1997 - 2009
Table 14 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2010 - 2018
Table 15 – PSTN lines – 2010 - 2016
Table 16 – Proportion of traditional fixed and VoIP lines – 2012 - 2016
Table 17 – Fixed-line telephony revenue – 2012 - 2016
Table 18 – Fixed-line telephony and VoIP ARPU – 2012 - 2016
Table 19 – Fixed-line telephony and VoIP traffic – 2010 - 2016
Table 20 – Average telephony traffic per subscriber (fixed-line and VoIP) – 2010 - 2016
Table 21 –International bandwidth – 2007 - 2016
Table 22 – Active VoIP subscriptions and penetration – 2010 - 2016
Table 23 –VoIP market share by operator – 2013 - 2016
Table 24 – VoIP services revenue– 2011 - 2016
Table 25 – Fixed-line broadband revenue and ARPU – 2011 - 2016
Table 26 – Proportion of fixed internet connections by data rate - 2015 - 2016
Table 27 – Historic - Internet users and user penetration – 1997 - 2010
Table 28 – Internet users and user penetration – 2010 - 2016
Table 29 – Fixed broadband subscribers and penetration – 2000 - 2018
Table 30 – Historic - Broadband market share by technology – 2000 – 2009
Table 31 –Fixed-line broadband market share by technology – 2015 – 2016
Table 32 – Fixed-line internet traffic – 2013 - 2016
Table 33 – Cable modem subscribers and household penetration – 2000 - 2017
Table 34 – DSL subscribers and household penetration – 2002 - 2017
Table 35 – Fibre broadband subscribers – 2010 - 2016
Table 36 – WiMAX subscribers – 2009 - 2016
Table 37 – Average traffic per mobile subscriber - 2011 - 2016
Table 38 – Mobile market share by operator - 2011 - 2016
Table 39 – Mobile market traffic - 2011 - 2016
Table 40 –Mobile revenue by service - 2012 - 2016
Table 41 –Proportion of mobile service revenue by type - 2011 - 2016
Table 42 – Historic - Mobile subscribers and penetration - 1998 - 2009
Table 43 – Mobile subscribers and penetration - 2010 - 2018
Table 44 – Proportion of prepaid and postpaid subscribers - 2010 - 2016
Table 45 – Prepaid and contract subscribers - 2010 - 2016
Table 46 – Prepaid and contract mobile ARPU - 2014 - 2016
Table 47 – SMS and MMS traffic - 2011 - 2016
Table 48 – SMS/MMS revenue - 2011 - 2016
Table 49 – Mobile internet subscribers and penetration - 2009 - 2017
Table 50 – Mobile internet revenue - 2013 - 2016
Table 51 – Mobile internet traffic - 2013 - 2016
Table 52 – Mobile number portings - 2014 - 2016
Table 53 – Roaming revenue (SMS/MMS and voice) - 2013 - 2016
Table 54 – ICE mobile subscribers - 2012 - 2016
Table 55 – Claro mobile subscribers - 2012 - 2016
Table 56 – Movistar mobile subscribers - 2012 - 2016
Table 57 – MVNO mobile subscribers by provider - 2011 - 2016

Chart 1 – ICE financial data – 2010 – 2014
Chart 2 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2005 – 2018
Chart 3 – Broadband subscribers and penetration – 2000 – 2018
Chart 4 – Cable modem subscribers and household penetration – 2000 – 2017
Chart 5 – DSL subscribers and household penetration – 2002 – 2017
Chart 6 – Mobile subscribers and penetration - 2005 – 2018
Chart 7 – Prepaid and contract subscribers - 2010 – 2016

Exhibit 1 – Major submarine cable networks connecting Costa Rica

Related Reports

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 48

Status Current

Last updated 22 Mar 2018
Update History

Analyst: Henry Lancaster

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