El Salvador selects ISDB-Tb Standard for DTTV services – El Salvador Telecom Industry Insights

El Salvador’s fixed-line teledensity is substantially lower than the Latin American and Caribbean average. However, there has been a significant drop in the number of fixed lines since 2010, largely due to the substitution for mobile-only alternatives.

Mobile penetration is remarkably high considering El Salvador’s economic indicators, being about a third higher than average for Latin America and the Caribbean. Of the estimated total number of telephones in the country, 10% are fixed and 90% are mobile. The country was one of the last in the region to provide LTE services. This was mainly due to the inadequate provision of suitable spectrum. A multi-spectrum auction is expected later in 2017 which will allow the mobile network operators to improve the reach and quality of their LTE offerings. Movistar by mid-2017 offered LTE to all provincial capitals, while Tigo is investing up to $1 billion in network infrastructure to extend LTE to 80% of the population by 2020. The switch from analogue to digital broadcasting, though delayed, will also release valuable spectrum in the 700MHz band for mobile broadband use.

El Salvador’s telecom legislation is one of the more liberal in Latin America, encouraging competition in most aspects of the telecoms sector and permitting foreign investment in all areas. However, there are no regulations as yet which promote wholesale broadband, and thus in the DSL market Claro retains a virtual monopoly. The only effective cross-platform competition in the broadband market comes from the few cable operators. There has been some market consolidation in recent years, and in mid-2017 the regulator stepped in to enforce provisions related to the proposed acquisition by Telemóvil of the regional cable TV provider Caribena Cable.

Through this process of consolidation a few dominant multinational operators have emerged (notably Millicom’s Tigo, América Móvil’s Claro, and Telefónica’s Movistar), which have managed to expand into almost all sectors through a process of convergence.

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The mobile market is served by five operators: Tigo, Movistar, Claro, Digicel, and Intelfon. The outlook is especially promising for mobile broadband, where competition between Claro, Tigo, and Telefónica will oblige the operators to diversify services and reduce prices.

Key developments:

• Regulator again consults on delayed AWS band auction;
• Competition authority imposes conditions for Telemóvil’s proposed acquisition of Caribena Cable;
• Number Portability gains customer popularity;
• Digicel expands reach of HSPA+ services;
• Government increases tax on some telecom services to 18%;
• ASO to be completed by end-2018;
• Central Reserve Bank finalises regulatory framework for mobile financial services; enabling a range of m-payment services via subsidiary companies set up by MNOs;
• Tigo rebrands cable, broadband and pay-TV services as ‘Tigo Star’;
• Mobile network operators invest to provide near national mobile broadband coverage;
• Report update includes the regulator’s market data updates to December 2016, telcos’ financial and operating data to Q4 2017, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

América Móvil (Claro), Millicent International (Tigo), Telefónica (Movistar), Red, GCA Telecom, Salnet, Amnet, Sky TV.