Dominican Republic Connected
The Dominican Republic’s income inequalities are still reflected in its telephone distribution; some people own multiple mobile phones each, yet there are communities comprising hundreds of families without access to a single phone line. The Dominican Republican government has been aggressively addressing the issue of access with a number of projects and a major broadband deployment partnership with the incumbent Codetel. Although the global financial crisis took its toll on the economies of the Caribbean region, which contracted by an average of 2% during 2009, the Dominican Republic stood in stark contrast with positive growth of over 3%. Consequently, investment in telecommunications and emerging services such as wireless broadband has remained strong. Considerable changes are expected in the mobile sector, with the anticipated auction of spectrum in the AWS and 900MHz bands which had been cancelled in 2011. Operators have launched commercial LTE services. Consolidation in the sector was seen in late 2013 when Orange Group, having invested some $150 million in its local network, sold Orange Dominicana to Altice Group. At the same time, Altice group acquired the integrated telecoms services provider Tricom Telecom (both deals closed in early 2014).
Dominican Republic – Key telecom parameters – 2013 (e)Market penetration
by service: 2013 (e) Broadband 5.1% SIM penetration (population) 91.3%
Fixed-line telephony 10.7% (Source: BuddeComm based on industry data)Market
highlights: Internet use has grown rapidly in recent years, far above the
global and regional average. The regulator Indotel has made progress in
projecting voice and broadband services to rural parts of the country,
soliciting funding from the World Bank to build a national fiber-optic network.
Despite the global economic downturn, investment in the telecoms sector has
continued to grow strongly. Mobile-phone subscriber growth has fallen since
2010, reflecting the relatively high penetration. The regulator in early 2012
allocated digital dividend spectrum for mobile services, which will go far in
extending services to underserved rural regions. The MNO Orange Dominicana
launched the first LTE network in the Dominican Republic in mid-2012, initially
in Santo Domingo and offering peak data speeds of up to 100Mb/s. The operator
has invested more than US$150 million in expanding and upgrading its network. In
early 2012 the government passed Law 01-2012 (National Development Strategy)
which released the digital dividend 700MHz band for mobile services.
The country now has 818MHz allocated for mobile telephony and broadband
compared to 270MHz in 2002.The triple play operator Wind Telecom launched a VoD
service in 2012, Moviecity Play. The service has already been deployed in other
Latin American markets, including Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Chile, attracting
more than 1.5 million customers across the region. In March 2013 an internet
exchange was set up, enabling local ISPs to terminate traffic on another’s
domestic network without having to use expensive international routes. Orange
in late 2013 considered exiting the Dominican market as part of a Group rationalization
of its business subsidiaries. Tricom during 2013 upgraded its LTE network, and
has migrated its CDMA subscribers to the new platform. The operator was
acquired by Altice Group in late 2013.AT&T negotiates for collaboration
with América Móvil to make use of its Dominican Republic networks; Updates on
the AMX-1 submarine cable; Orange Dominicana launches the ‘Orange m-peso’
pre-paid mobile banking service; The government has begun distributing around
one million decoders to help the transition to digital TV, to be part-funded by
revenue from spectrum auctions. Wind telecom in June 2014 contracted ZTE to
build an LTE network. In June 2014 the regulator gave the owners of five
million expired prepaid numbers three months to register their details and
validate their accounts; the regulator in May 2014 auctioned spectrum in the
1700-2100MHz and 941-960MHz bands, which will go far to stimulating the mobile
broadband sector. - See more at: http://www.budde.com.au/Research/Dominican-Republic-Telecoms-IP-Networks-Digital-Media-and-Forecasts.html?r=51#sthash.EHH1KHUr.dpuf
Companies covered in this report include: Claro (América Móvil); Orange
Dominicana; Tricom; VIVA; Codetel; Tricom. This report is essential reading for
those needing high level strategic information and objective analysis on the
telecom sector in the Dominican Republic. It provides further information on: Market
liberalization and regulatory issues; The impact of the global economic crisis;
Telecoms operators – privatization, acquisitions, new licenses; Mobile data
market developments in coming years in light of spectrum auctions and new
license awards; Mobile developments, regulatory issues and technologies
including LTE; Broadband migration to an Fit architecture; Historical and
current subscriber statistics and forecasts
Map and data for Dominica.
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DO - 10,349,741 population (2014) - Area: 48,734 sq km
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Capital City: Santo Domingo - 2,552,398
(2010)
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6,054,013 Internet users on Dec 31, 2013, 58.5% penetration, per
Indotel.
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243,645 Mobile Internet subscribers as of Dec/2010, per Indotel.
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2,821,700 Facebook subscribers on Dec 31/12, 27.3% penetration rate.
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Internet Usage and Population Statistics:
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YEAR
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Users
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Population
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% Pen.
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GDP p.c.*
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Usage Source
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|
2000
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55,000
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8,338,100
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0.7 %
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US$ 2,062
|
|
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2007
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2,100,000
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9,260,258
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22.7 %
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US$ 3,550
|
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2011
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3,851,278
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9,956,648
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38.7 %
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US$ 4,510
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