Panama: Telecom Regulators Push to Drive Broadband Penetration; LTE on the Way

Summary The telecom market in Panama will be worth US$1.71bn in 2018, with growth mainly in mobile data, pay-TV and fixed broadband. CWP will remain the largest operator revenue-wise through 2018. Mobile penetration growth slowed to a crawl in 2012. LTE is yet to be launched commercially. Pay-TV reached more than one-quarter of households in 2012, with DTH growing rapidly. Our Country Intelligence Reports analyze market trends, regulatory environments and competitive dynamics for 60 countries worldwide, delivering quantitative and qualitative insight into key trends, opportunities and risk factors. Key Findings Panama's telecom services market will be worth US$1.71bn in 2018, up from $1.38bn in 2013. Growth will come mainly in mobile data, as well as pay-TV and fixed broadband. Cable and Wireless will generate the most service revenue throughout the forecast period. Mobile penetration growth slowed to a crawl in 2012: at the end of 2013 there will be about 7.2m mobile subscriptions. As the mobile market approaches saturation, competition will get even more intense, particularly in the prepaid segment. Pyramid Research expects 3G connections to surpass 2G/2.5G ones in 2014 and to reach 73% of all mobile subscriptions in 2018. We project that fixed broadband penetration, hindered largely by high service prices and a lack of competition, will reach 14.7% in 2018; the government has a plan to achieve a penetration rate of 47% over the next 10 years. Pay-TV penetration stood at about 28% of households in 2012; we expect adoption of DTH to continue to grow over the forecast period, powered by Sky and Claro. Our Country Intelligence Reports offer detailed analysis of market trends, regulatory environments and competitive dynamics for 60 countries worldwide. They deliver quantitative and qualitative insight into key trends, near-term opportunities and risk factors in each specific telecom market, based on proprietary data from our databases. Synopsis NA