Wireless Tower Market in Latin America: Regulatory Changes Coupled with Mobile Data Growth Will Unlock Opportunities

Summary Wireless tower infrastructure in Latin America plays a particularly crucial role in enabling broadband Internet access as fixed infrastructure has traditionally been relatively weak and underdeveloped across the region. The wireless tower industry is represented by mobile operators and tower companies as owners of tower assets. In Latin America, mobile operators and towercos operate over 161 thousand wireless towers. With over 50,000 wireless towers deployed, Brazil accounts for close to 31% of Latin Americas total wireless towers. Mobile operators continue to almost exclusively build and manage their own tower infrastructure across most markets in the region, with the exception of Brazil and Mexico. Key Findings The majority of demand for new wireless towers in the region will be driven by mobile operators need to augment the capacity of their mobile networks to cope with the sustained growth of mobile data. A growing LTE subscriber base and the explosion of video traffic driven primarily by LTE-capable smartphones is already putting substantial pressure on regional mobile operators access network (RAN), creating the pressing need for adding wireless tower sites. Increased 4G spectrum licensing activity in the region since 2012 is also driving the demand for mobile infrastructure as licensees seek to comply with ambitious coverage guidelines. Given the poor propagation quality of the majority of the 4G spectrum allocated in Latin America, operators will be required to deploy a greater number of cell sites to provide the coverage, driving demand for wireless towers. Though LTE will be the primary technology for investment, most mobile operators in Latin America will continue devoting sizeable resources to extend the reach of their 3G networks to support 2G to 3G migration efforts. Municipal-level permitting stands as the biggest challenge for the deployment of new wireless tower infrastructure. In recent years governments in Brazil, Colombia and Peru have approved and sanctioned new regulations that seek to standardize and simplify wireless infrastructure permitting procedures, and eliminate bureaucratic obstacles for the timely deployment of wireless infrastructure, including wireless towers. More recently, mobile operators have increasingly turned to small cells for extending coverage and providing additional capacity. In Latin America, mobile operators such as Avantel in Colombia and TIM in Brazil have announced multi-year small cells roll out plans. Synopsis Pyramid Researchs report “Wireless Tower Market in Latin America: Regulatory Changes Coupled with Mobile Data Growth Will Unlock Opportunities” provides an executive-level overview of the wireless tower market in Latin America today. It delivers deep quantitative and qualitative insight into the Latin American wireless tower market, analyzing key trends, drivers, and inhibitors, evaluating market players, based on proprietary data from Pyramid Researchs databases. It provides in-depth analysis of the following: The main sources of wireless capacity and the different radio access nodes employed to offer wireless coverage and capacity. Regional wireless tower market context; a comparative review of the market structure, size and key players within the Latin American market. Drivers and Inhibitors; an analysis of the key drivers and inhibitors impacting wireless tower activity in Latin America. Market details; a look at case studies in Mexico, Brazil and Peru, evaluating these under regulatory, demand, competitive, and technology lenses. Conclusions; this section details theKey Findings regarding the market in Latin America and the near-term opportunities and challenges for operators, network equipment vendors, tower companies and regulators in the telecommunications and wireless tower markets in Latin America Reasons To Buy Facilitates mobile operators and tower companies to gain a context of the wireless tower market in Latin America, to align business strategies. Gain a comprehensive understanding of the main drivers and inhibitors of activity in Latin America, and how this will evolve over the next five years. Understand the regulatory and support framework for growth in Latin America, as well as the impact of the main regulatory trends in the region. Identify the countries in Latin America that have recently taken steps to remove barriers and streamline the deployment of wireless towers, so as to enable operators, network equipment vendors and investment banks better asses opportunities in these countries. Gain an understanding of what regulators, as well as mobile and tower operators can do to make the Latin American wireless tower market more dynamic and take advantage of existing growth opportunities.