ICE merges Cable Visión with Kölbi brandSince Costa Rica’s telecom sector was liberalized it has shown considerable growth in the number of subscribers for all services. Competition was slow to develop, leaving the state owned operator ICE with a monopoly for a number of years, though there is now effective competition in all sectors. ICE remains the dominant provider of fixed-line services, while its subsidiary RACSA offers broadband via cable modem and WiMAX services.

Costa Rican full-service provider Cabletica has begun offering broadband connections with speeds of up to 100Mbps in Cartago, using the fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network rolled out by utility provider Junta Administrativa del Servicio Electrico Municipal de Cartago (Jasec). El Financiero network covers some 46,000 homes in nine districts of the province, namely: East, West, Guadalupe, San Nicolas, Carmen, Dulce Nombre, Agua Caliente (all Cartago canton), Tejar (El Guarco canton) and San Rafael (Oreamuno). Cabletica said that it signed an access and interconnection agreement with Jasec to utilise the operator’s FTTH network, adding that the deal allowed it to offer consumers services at the same price as its standard cable-based offerings, enabling it to offer users ‘higher speeds without having to overpay.’

Costa Rica’s Deputy Minister of Telecommunications Emilio Arias has set the ball rolling for the auction of 70MHz of mobile spectrum that went unsold back in January 2011, El Financiero reports. The minister has signed an order instructing the Superintendency of Telecommunications (Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones, Sutel) to commence the auction process, which will see 40MHz of 1800MHz spectrum and 30MHz in the 1900MHz/2100MHz band go under the hammer. The wireless market’s two smaller network operators, Telefonica-owned Movistar and America Movil’s local unit Claro, are expected to compete in the auction, while market leader Kolbi (Grupo ICE) previously declared that it does not intend to participate.

Costa Rica’s broadband market is the most developed in Central America, with the highest broadband penetration for this sub-region. Geographical distribution however is unequal, with a much higher digital gap than in the case of telephone services. Compared with the whole of Latin America, Costa Rica’s broadband penetration lags behind Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and some Caribbean islands.

The regulator has documented steady increase in overall telecom sector revenue in recent years, with a 17% growth in both 2012 and 2013, climbing to 34% in 2014. Fixed-line voice services accounted for about 5% of revenue in 2014 while revenue from VoIP services, though increasing sharply in recent years, accounted for only 1%. Total investment by operators was equal to 1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while revenue accounted for 3% of GDP in 2014.
The Costa Rican telecom sector has showed greater resilience than most in the region, and with the implementation of number portability there is greater scope for increased competition in coming years.

The DTT market continues to develop, with the first digital broadcast made in 2012, though there are as yet few subscribers to the service. The switch to DTTV is expected to be completed by the end of 2017.

Key developments:

• ICE unifies its two pay-TV operations under a single brand;
• Sutel adopts LRIC model to calculate access and interconnection rates;
• Claro launches triple play bundles;
• Commercial LTE services gain geographic scope;
• Full Móvil acquired by Grupo ICE;
• Tigo rebrands all services as Tigo Star, extends satellite TV launches to Costa Rica and Honduras.
• Anticipated spectrum auction to bolster reach of LTE;
• Number Portability becomes available;

Penetration of telecoms services	Penetration Rate
Fixed-line telephony	17.7%
Fixed broadband	11.6%
Mobile SIM (population)	152%