The use of mobile phones in Latin America continues to rise with approximately 123 million mobile phones in Latin America compared with 89 million fixed line phones

Research and Markets are delighted to announce the addition of 2004 Latin America - Mobile Communications Market to their offering

(PRWEB) July 21, 2004 -- Latin America had 8% of global mobile subscribers at end-2003, but currency devaluations and low Average Revenue per User (ARPU) resulted in the region earning only 4% of the worlds mobile revenues. Due to the overwhelming growth of prepaid subscribers, ARPU levels in Latin America are lower than all the rest of the world except for Africa.

While fixed lines stagnate, the mobile market continues to grow. In early 2004, there were around 123 million mobile phones in Latin America compared with approximately 89 million fixed line phones. Paraguay leads the trend, with five times more mobile than fixed line subscribers. Average mobile penetration in the region stands at around 22%; however it varies greatly from country to country, with Puerto Rico and Chile recording the highest at around 41% and 47% respectively, while Haiti and Honduras languish at 2% and 5% respectively.

In 2004, three multinational operators serve about 82% of Latin Americas mobile market: América Móvil, Telefónica and Telecom Italia. During 2003, there were altogether 37 new GSM networks launched across Latin America. GSM has become the regions fastest growing technology, soaring by around 185% in one year, and increasing by another 27% in the first 3 months of 2004. The number of GSM users reached 27.1 million in March 2004.

America Móvil and Telecom Italia are committed to GSM while BellSouth and Verizon chose CDMA; during 2004, Millicom has been rolling out GSM services across all of its operations in Latin America, and Telefónica Móviles is using both CDMA and GSM.

Brazils leading mobile carrier Vivo has upgraded all of its networks to CDMA 1xRTT and is further expanding to support multiple spread-spectrum technologies including: 1xEV-DO, 1xEV-DV and W-CDMA/UMTS. Short Message Service (SMS) interoperability was introduced during 2003-2004 in Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay and Peru.

This annual report offers a wealth of information on the Mobile market, covering:

Trends, Analysis, Players, Revenues, Subscribers, Prepaid Spectrum Auctions, Developments, Govt. Policies Infrastructure, GSM, CDMA, 3G Mobile Data - Market Issue, Paging, Dedicated Services SIM, SMS, MMS, GPRS, EDGE, WAP, M-Commerce Telemetry, Location Services, Bluetooth, PMR, TMR Mobile Satellite Services

For a complete index of this report click on http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/220239

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