One of the poorest and least developed Latin American nations, Bolivia has South America’s lowest mobile penetration and second lowest fixed-line teledensity. Mobile telephony suffers from poor quality of service and inadequate network capacity.

In April 2007, the government moved to renationalize the incumbent operator, Entel, 50% owned by Telecom Italia. But negotiations between the Bolivian state and the Italian telco turned sour, leading to an impasse despite international conciliation attempts. If it gains control of Entel, the government plans to shift its focus from technological innovation to providing basic coverage in rural areas. Details are as follows;

YEAR	Population	Internet Users	% Pen.	GNI p.c.	Usage Source
2000	8,476,200	120,000	1.4%	$1,000	ITU
2005	9,073,856	480,000	5.2%	$900	ITU
2008	9,601,257	1,000,000	10.4%	$1,100	IWS
2012	10,290,003	3,087,000	30.0%	$2,040	IWS
2015	10,800,882	4,214,504	39.0%	$2,830	IWS

 

Bolivia’s largest telecoms co-operative, Cooperativa de Telefonos Automaticos La Paz (COTEL), has upgraded its network infrastructure in the Bolivian capital La Paz, BNamericas is reporting. It is understood that the upgrade will allow COTEL to expand its services to include IP telephony, data transmission and on-demand video services, and the company has announced that it is aiming to increase its internet subscriber base by at least 25% this year. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, the broadband market in Bolivia is currently dominated by Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Entel), which claims 90.28% market share.

The structure of Bolivia’s fixed telecom market is different from most other countries. Local services are primarily provided by 15 telecom cooperatives. These are non-profit-making companies privately owned and controlled by their users. Since liberalization, the cooperatives have also provided long-distance telephony, and several offer broadband and pay TV services. They have invested in network upgrades in a bid to improve services for customers, and to expand their footprints.

Bolivia has a multi-carrier system wherein consumers can choose a long-distance carrier for each call by dialling the carrier’s prefix. A number of operators have adopted VoIP, while others use fixed-wireless technologies, and some rent fibre-optic capacity.

State-owned Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Entel) is the country’s incumbent long-distance operator. It also offers local telephony, ADSL broadband access, and satellite pay TV services. Its subsidiary Entel Movil is Bolivia’s largest mobile company.

Since it was renationalized in 2007, Entel has focused on providing telecom services in rural areas under a project known as Territory with Total Coverage. This project aims to increase telecom coverage through mobile rather than through fixed networks.

Bolivia has more than ten times as many mobile phones as fixed lines, and the trend towards fixed-mobile substitution continues. Besides Entel, another two companies offer mobile telephony: Tigo, wholly owned by Luxembourg-based Millicom International, and NuevaTel, trading as Viva and controlled by US firm Trilogy International.

All three mobile companies offer 3G services using UMTS technology. Due to the poor quality, high cost, and unavailability of ADSL, 3G has become an attractive alternative in Bolivia. The number of mobile broadband and smartphone accounts has escalated. Tigo’s launch of an LTE service in mid-2014 heralds the emergence of a new era in mobile broadband.

The launch of a new satellite in December 2013 heralds improved telecom services across Bolivia following the satellite coming online in April 2014, with additional capacity expected to be sold to other countries in the regions. Entel launched a new satellite TV service in May 2014.