Costa Rica: Government Embarks on its Second National Development Plan for Telecommunications to Promote Sector Growth and Innovation

Summary Costa Rica's telecommunications service providers will generate a combined $1.5bn in service revenue in 2016. 40% will come from voice services, both fixed and mobile. As elsewhere in the region, revenue from voice services will decline during the 2016-2021 period. We expect a -6.9% CAGR in fixed circuit-switched telephony revenue and a -2.2% CAGR in mobile voice, though fixed VoIP, supported by broadband players, will see a robust 15.4% CAGR over the same period. By 2021, we expect voice services to contribute 10 percentage points less to overall revenue; data will emerge as the largest segment, its share of total revenue expanding from 41% in 2016 to 51% in 2021. The contribution from fixed (telephony, Internet and pay-TV) is particularly high in Costa Rica at 38% in 2016, and we expect it to remain high as a result of operator investments in fixed broadband technology. Key Findings - Competition in the Costa Rica telecom market has increased particularly in the wake of the liberalization of the mobile sector. Incumbent operator ICE (kölbi) is the leader in fixed voice, residential Internet and mobile services and will account for 53% of the country's total service revenue in 2016. Claro and Movistar, which launched mobile services in 2011, will enjoy a combined 23% of revenue in 2016. Tigo, the fourth largest player in the market, will account for 9% of total revenue in 2016 on the strength of its VoIP and pay-TV leadership positions. - The Second National Development Plan for Telecommunications 2015-2021 (PNDT), approved by the government in October 2015, sets the overall blueprint for the development of the sector. The ultimate objective of the plan is to improve national welfare by using the ICT sector as an engine of economic growth. - We expect mobile subscriptions in Costa Rica to grow at a CAGR of 1.4% between year-end 2016 and year-end 2021. During the same period, mobile penetration will increase from 158% to 162%. Synopsis “Costa Rica: Government Embarks on its Second National Development Plan for Telecommunications to Promote Sector Growth and Innovation” provides an executive-level overview of the telecommunications market in Costa Rica today, with detailed forecasts of key indicators up to 2021. It delivers deep quantitative and qualitative insight into the Costa Rican telecom market, analyzing key trends, evaluating near-term opportunities and assessing risk factors, based on proprietary data from Pyramid Research's databases. The Country Intelligence Report provides in-depth analysis of the following: - Regional context: telecom market size and trends in Costa Rica compared with other countries in the Latin American region. - Economic, demographic and political context in Costa Rica. - The regulatory environment and trends: a review of the regulatory setting and agenda for the next 18-24 months as well as relevant developments pertaining to national broadband plans and other infrastructure developments. - A demand profile: analysis as well as historical figures and forecasts of service revenue from the fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice and mobile data segments. - Service evolution: a look at changes in the breakdown of overall revenue between the fixed and mobile sectors and between voice, data and video from 2013 to 2020. - The competitive landscape: an examination of key trends in competition and in the performance, revenue market shares and expected moves of service providers over the next 18-24 months. - In-depth sector analysis of fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice and mobile data services: a quantitative analysis of service adoption trends by network technology and by operator, as well as of average revenue per line/subscription and service revenue through the end of the forecast period. - Main opportunities: this section details the near-term opportunities for operators, vendors and investors in the Costa Rican telecommunications market. Reasons To Buy - Gain in-depth analysis of current strategies and future trends of the Costa Rican telecommunications market, service providers and key opportunities in a concise format, to build proactive and profitable growth strategies. - Understand the factors behind ongoing and upcoming trends in the Costa Rican communications, fixed telephony and broadband markets, including the evolution of service provider market shares, to align product offerings and strategies to meet customers' demand. - Leverage the graphical information (more than 20 charts and tables in the report based on the Pyramid Research forecast products), to gain an overview of Costa Rica's telecom market. - Analysis of key telecom players in the markets and major business strategies being adopted by them, to identify the opportunities to improve market share. - Explore novel opportunities to align your product strategies and offerings to meet the requirements and succeed in the challenging telecommunications market in Costa Rica.