Research report: Expect big growth in mobile data, broadband and pay television
Bolivia is one the smallest countries — and telecommunications markets —in Latin America, but, despite its stature, is poised to lead in telecom growth, according to new research.
The Bolivian telecom industry generated $1 billion in 2014, based on analysis from Pyramid Research, which focused on emerging tech and emerging markets. From 2014 to 2019, Pyramid projects the Bolivian telecom market with realize a compound annual growth rate of 7.8%, which equates to generation of $1.5 billion in 2019.
Large growth areas are adoption of mobile data and broadband services, along with pay television content offerings.
“As many telecom sectors in Bolivia are still significantly underdeveloped when compared to other countries in Latin America, there is abundant opportunity for growth within specific areas such as pay-TV,” said Pyramid senior analyst Marcel Kawanami.
Broadband penetration was a low 2.1% in Bolivia at the end of 2014, making it one of the least connected countries in Latin America. Similarly, Bolivia has some of the slowest — yet most expensive — Internet service in the region, which has pushed consumers to mobile as the go-to source of Internet access. Compare the 2.1% broadband penetration to the 96% penetration of mobile subscriptions.
“Currently, mobile operators are highly focused on migrating their 2G users into 3G [plus] technologies to leverage mobile data revenue,” the report added.
As for pay television content, Pyramid pegs that as a main driver in Bolivian telecom growth opportunities. Based on their research, Pyramid analysts project pay-television will growth from current penetration of 10.9% to 27.1% by the end of 2019.
“With the increasing competition in the pay-TV space in Bolivia, industry players are working on promotional pay-TV packages and bundled offers with discount rates, combining both broadband Internet and pay-TV in order to gain share in both segments,” Kawanami said.
