Mexico. The telecommunications industry in Mexico, which includes the segments of fixed and mobile telecommunications, as well as paid audiovisual content – both regulated services and OTT services – concluded the third quarter of the year with a growth rate of 4.8% per year, almost double the growth of the national economy, driven by an accelerated consumption of data services, especially via mobile devices.
The quarterly analysis presented by the consultancy The CIU indicated that telecommunications have a growing relevance within the national economy generating quarterly revenues of more than 121 billion pesos, which amounts to more than 2.3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.
The same percentage represented the global revenues of the retail telecommunications market in 2016 in relation to global GDP, according to the "Report on Measuring the Information Society 2018" released also this week, by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
In our country, the mobile sector obtained during the third quarter of this year estimated revenues of 71,186 million pesos, almost two thirds of the total income of the sector that exceeded 121,300 million pesos. This growth was driven by the sale of mobile devices by operators, as well as the accelerated growth in mobile data consumption.
The Mexican consultancy estimated that, during the reference quarter, for every 100 pesos of income, mobile telecommunications operators obtained 33.4 pesos for the sale of equipment while the rest was divided between prepaid income (35.5 pesos per 100) and postpaid (31.1 pesos per 100). In turn, mobile data consumption in the quarter amounted to 1,290 Megabytes per subscriber when a couple of years ago this consumption was only 532 Megabytes.
The provider of fixed telephone and internet services presented quarterly revenues estimated at more than 26,800 million pesos (22.1% of the total) generated by 19.7 million fixed telephony subscribers and 18 million fixed broadband subscribers. The conversion of customers from unitary services to packages with two or three services has been largely responsible for keeping telephone subscribers stable while fixed broadband subscribers are growing to the point that it is estimated that, over the course of next year, they will surpass those of fixed telephony.
In the paid audiovisual content segment, which during the quarter invoiced around 23,300 million pesos, it stands out that OTT services have grown rapidly reaching in that period a total of 8.3 million subscribers, getting very close to the traditional operators, cable television services (9.7 million subscribers) and Direct To Home satellite television (11.1 million subscribers).
While it is true that the growth of the telecommunications industry in Mexico is highly positive, which doubles that of the economy in general, it is worth noting that to maintain the same rate of growth it is necessary that there are public policies and regulatory measures that facilitate the development of the sector.
The Institute of Telecommunications Law (IDET) is confident that both the new administration and the Federal Institute of Telecommunications, within the scope of their respective powers, will carry out the necessary actions to continue promoting the telecommunications sector and, consequently, a greater number of Mexicans can access and enjoy its services.
Text written by the Institute of Telecommunications Law, IDET.
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