Mexico. The Federal Telecommunications Institute presents the results of the First Survey on the Expectations of Telecommunications Markets, which provides valuable information on the expected demand for these services, their prices and the level of investment, as well as the identification of factors or challenges that could hardly be identified from the available quantitative information.
The survey allows to identify relevant elements for the analysis of what is desirable and what is expected to be faced in the near future in the provision and consumption of telecommunications services. In this sense, the report is structured in 3 sections where the overview of the sector, the expectations about the markets and the impact of COVID-19 on the telecommunications sector are presented.
Overview of the Telecommunications sector in Mexico 2021
This section presents the expectations of the respondents about their overview regarding the prioritization of the main issues relevant to the Telecommunications sector in Mexico.
In terms of priorities, respondents identify fixed and mobile Internet coverage as the most priority issue, while the main challenge identified by companies and experts refers to the income derived from these services. Likewise, respondents agree that the main commercial strategy is the adoption of new services that incorporate added value to the commercial offers of operators.
On the expectations of the development of the Telecommunications sector in 2021, 97% of the participants in the survey confirm as one of their expectations that the intensity in the use of telecommunications services will increase this year, while 75% expect that the ability to use telecommunications services will also improve (skills of users).
On the other hand, respondents were asked about the importance of some technological innovations for the development of the digital ecosystem in our country, and most again agree that a coverage issue, in this case, LTE coverage, will be important; as well as 5G networks, cloud computing and virtualization.
Expectations about the Telecommunications markets in Mexico 2021
This section focuses on the expectations that both companies and experts in the Telecommunications sector have regarding the behavior of various fundamental market variables at the end of the year.
Regarding the entry of Over the Top (OTT) services into the market, the perception of 80% of experts and 65% of telecommunications and digital services companies that participated in the survey, is positive around their presence in the sector, due to the opportunity for this type of services to be packaged by the same telecommunications operators, resulting in commercial strategies such as lean packaging, which are also considered positive by 73% of telecommunications and digital services companies.
Expectations about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Telecommunications sector
Given the current situation of health contingency and the need for connectivity, the participants consider that the challenges are focused on the deployment and sharing of infrastructure, investments, new services, the process of competition and free competition within the sector, the coverage of networks and their resilience in a scenario where the use of telecommunications services is intensive.
Although some of the issues collected by the survey on short-term challenges are not new, it is recognized that in a scenario where the use of telecommunications services is intensive, the health contingency has exacerbated the need for connectivity, making these issues more critical than before in the context of the digital ecosystem.
Taking into account the aforementioned current context of the COVID-19 pandemic, telecommunications experts and operators were consulted on other interesting aspects such as commercial strategies, the elements to prepare the infrastructure for possible future contingencies and the main areas of opportunity expected in 2021.
In this sense, social distancing measures confirmed the importance of telecommunications infrastructure in Mexico. In this context and in the opinion of the respondents, the main commercial strategy focuses on strengthening digital customer service channels, while the adoption of new technologies is identified as the main element to improve the current infrastructure.
To know in detail this study and its other results, such as the expectation about the digitalization of society derived from the COVID-19 pandemic; the business variables that are expected to be most affected by the current situation; and the areas of opportunity from the regulatory and business point of view in the telecommunications sector in the digital context, the portal can be consulted: http://www.ift.org.mx/estadisticas/expectativas-de-los-servicios-de-telecomunicaciones
