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Caribbean Telecommunications Report Q3 2009Product Type: Market Research ReportPublished by: Business Monitor International Published: August 2009 Product Code: R302-7553 Description Caribbean telecoms markets include rates of development across the spectrum. Several markets -Barbados, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Martinique and Trinidad and Tobago - are highly developed withmobile penetration rates above 100% and growing broadband markets. There are also two monopolymarkets in the Caribbean - Bahamas and Cuba - although these have developed at entirely different rates.The Caribbean holds both very wealthy and very poor countries leading to high growth rates and lowpenetration rates across the region.The Cuban market remains one of the most interesting in the region with low penetration rates and thefirst signs of some liberalisation in the market. That is not to say that new operators could be allowed toenter the market, but restrictions on mobile phone ownership have been lifted although internet accessremains solely a product for the elite. BMI of course would advocate the market opening to competitionand we believe that lower priced mobile services would see the market boom. However this seemsextremely unlikely in the immediate future and we forecast the penetration rate for mobile services onlyreaching 7% by 2013. In sharp contrast is Haiti which has benefitted hugely from the introduction of competition with Digicelsingle-handedly pushing the penetration rate up to 43% in less than two years. While BMI believes thatthe market will continue to see fast growth we anticipate a slow down as mobile services remain beyondthe reach of the majority of Haitians. Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic are similar markets in that they are both highly competitive and yetsee much slower growth trajectories than the majority of Caribbean markets. Both countries have largerpopulations than the other Caribbean countries, with the exception of Cuba and Haiti, meaning thatreaching the 100% penetration point is somewhat harder. Nonetheless, the markets are dynamic and seegood growth rates for the operators present there. The focus up to now has been on mobile development but, as saturation hits, broadband services areincreasingly important for generating growth in the Caribbean. New technologies are helping to extendthe reach of limited fixed-line infrastructure and competition is heating up. This is good news foroperators traditionally reliant on fixed-line services as the popularity of wireline connections decreases.Focusing efforts on data services is key to fixed-line operator strategy although they face competitionfrom wireless operators that are also beginning to offer data services over their networks. Table of Contents
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