Honduras - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Executive summary

Honduras’s mobile subscribers base weakens into 2018

Honduras is among the poorest countries in Central America and has long been plagued by an unstable political framework which has rendered telecom sector reform difficult. This has created real difficulties for telcos as well as consumers. Fixed-line teledensity, at only 5.2%, is significantly lower than the Latin American and Caribbean average. Poor fixed-line infrastructure has been exacerbated by low investment and topographical difficulties which have made investment in rural areas unattractive or uneconomical. Consequently, the internet has been slow to develop: DSL and cable modem technologies are available but are relatively expensive and thus take-up has been low thus far, while higher speed services are largely restricted to the major urban centres. Nevertheless, the demand for broadband is steadily increasing and there are been some investment in network upgrades to fibre-based infrastructure. Poor fixed-line connectivity has also inhibited the take-up of videostreaming services.

On the positive side, these factors have encouraged consumer take-up of mobile services, a sector where there is lively competition supported by international investment. Even so, mobile penetration is substantially below the regional average. Revenue growth from the mobile sector looks promising in coming years as operators invest in their networks, expand their reach and upgrade their capabilities to accommodate mobile broadband services. Mobile data as a proportion of overall mobile revenue has increased steadily, though low-end SMS services will continue to account for the bulk of data revenue for some years.

Political developments during the last few years have not facilitated the much-needed reform of legislation governing the telecoms sector. Partly this is due to political stalemate and ineffective legislators, but underlying the difficulties are the close ties between executives at the incumbent Hondutel and key members of the government.

Key developments:

Regulator preps for multi-spectrum auction aimed at attracting a fourth mobile player;
Claro and Tigo extend LTE services;
Universal Access program providing free internet services to public schools;
Tigo Money mobile cash transfer service signs up more than one million users;
Tigo launches satellite service;
Spectrum auction encourages mobile broadband services take-up;
Tigo rebrands broadband and pay-TV business as ‘Tigo Star’;
Report update includes the regulator’s market data to March 2018, telcos’ operational data updates to Q2 2018, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Hondutel, Comunitel, MultiData, Millicom (Tigo), Digicel, América Móvil (Claro).

Table of Contents

1. Executive summary
2. Key statistics
3. Country overview
4. Telecommunications market
- 4.1 Historical overview
5. Regulatory environment
- 5.1 Regulatory authority
- 5.2 Privatisation
- 5.3 DR-CAFTA
- 5.4 Foreign investment
- 5.5 Telecom sector liberalisation
- 5.6 ‘Telephony For All’ program
6. Fixed network operators
- 6.1 Hondutel
- 6.2 Tele+ (Comunitel)
- 6.3 MultiData
7. Telecommunications infrastructure
- 7.1 Overview of the national telecom network
- 7.2 International infrastructure
  - 7.2.1 Interconnection with other Central American countries
  - 7.2.2 Submarine cable networks
  - 7.2.3 Satellite networks
- 7.3 Infrastructure developments
  - 7.3.1 Wireless Local Loop (WLL)
- 7.4 Internet Exchange Point (IXP)
8. Fixed-line broadband market
- 8.1 Introduction and statistical overview
- 8.2 Broadband statistics
  - 8.2.1 Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks
- 8.3 Major ISPs and broadband players
- 8.4 Community Telecentres
9. Mobile market
- 9.1 Market analysis
- 9.2 Mobile statistics
  - 9.2.1 Mobile voice
  - 9.2.2 Mobile data
  - 9.2.3 Mobile broadband
- 9.3 Regulatory issues
  - 9.3.1 Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
  - 9.3.2 Spectrum auctions
- 9.4 Mobile infrastructure
  - 9.4.1 4G (LTE)
  - 9.4.2 3G
- 9.5 Major mobile operators
  - 9.5.1 Tigo Honduras
  - 9.5.2 Claro Honduras
  - 9.5.3 Hondutel Movil
  - 9.5.4 Digicel
- 9.6 Mobile applications
  - 9.6.1 M-money
10. Related reports

Table 1 – Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities - Honduras – 2018 (e)
Table 2 – Evolution of GDP in Honduras – 2000 - 2018
Table 3 – Telecom sector revenue – 2000 - 2016
Table 4 – Tax revenue from telecom services – 2014 – 2016
Table 5 – Fixed line national traffic – 2015 – 2018
Table 6 – Historic - Market share of fixed lines by operator – 2003 - 2010
Table 7 – Hondutel revenue – 2011 – 2017
Table 8 – Hondutel net profit – 2005 – 2015; 2016 - 2017
Table 9 – Telecom sector revenue – 2011- 2014
Table 10 – Historic - Fixed lines in service by operator – 1996 - 2011
Table 11 – Historic - Fixed lines in service – 1996 - 2009
Table 12 – Fixed lines in service by operator – 2005 - 2018
Table 13 – International bandwidth – 2000 - 2016
Table 14 – International bandwidth per user – 2007 - 2016
Table 15 – Internet household penetration – 2010 - 2018
Table 16 – Historic - Internet users and penetration rate – 1997 - 2009
Table 17 – Internet users and penetration rate – 2010 - 2018
Table 18 – Internet subscribers and penetration rate – 2002 - 2018
Table 19 – Fixed-line broadband subscribers – 2010 - 2019
Table 20 – DSL and cable broadband subscribers – 2014 - 2016
Table 21 – Historic - Mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 1997 – 2009
Table 22 – Mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 2010 – 2018
Table 23 – Mobile prepaid and postpaid subscribers – 2015- 2016
Table 24 – Mobile prepaid/postpaid ratio – 1997 - 2016
Table 25 – Blended mobile ARPU – 2012- 2015
Table 26 –Mobile voice traffic – 2014 - 2018
Table 27 –Mobile messaging traffic – 2014 - 2017
Table 28 – Active mobile broadband subscribers – 2010 - 2018
Table 29 – Tigo mobile subscribers – 2000 - 2018
Table 30 – Tigo mobile revenue – 2015 - 2018
Table 31 – Historic - Claro – mobile subscribers – 2003 - 2008
Table 32 – Tigo Money users – 2014 - 2015

Chart 1 – Fixed lines in service by operator – 2005 – 2018
Chart 2 – Internet users and penetration rate – 2000 – 2018
Chart 3 – Internet subscribers and penetration rate – 2003 – 2018
Chart 4 – Fixed-line broadband subscribers – 2010 – 2019
Chart 5 – Mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 2005 – 2018

Exhibit 1 – Major submarine cable networks connecting Honduras
Exhibit 2 – Spectrum band allocations for LTE - 2013
Exhibit 3 – Spectrum auction awards – October 2013

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Focus Report Profile

Technologies

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

Number of pages 38

Status Current

Last updated 7 Sep 2018
Update History

Analyst: Henry Lancaster

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