Study: Government Regulation Stifling Argentine Mobile, Pay-TV

Given Argentina's soaring mobile and pay-TV penetration, the country still has not seen the same level of development in converged and bundled offers than in other markets in the region as regulators continue to block competition, according to the latest report from Pyramid Research.

Mobile penetration in Argentina is estimated at 120 percent at year-end 2009, compared with 89 percent for the region as a whole, while its pay-TV penetration, at 64 percent of households, is among the highest in the world, notes Luis Portela, Analyst at Pyramid Research and co-author of the report.

'Argentina: Regulators Block Competition in Key Telecom Sectors' offers a profile of the country's converged telecommunications, media, and technology sectors based on proprietary data from research in the Argentinean market. The 30-page report provides detailed competitive analysis of both the fixed and mobile sectors, tracks the market shares of technologies and services, and monitors the introduction and spread of new technologies, such as WiMAX, IPTV (News - Alert), and VoIP.

'The number of double-play connections will continue to increase over the forecast period at a 3.2 percent CAGR through 2014, and triple-play connections will expand nine-fold over the same period,' says Portela, 'but the latter could expand even faster if telecom and cable companies manage to find an agreement with the regulator over pay-TV and voice service provision.'

The high pay-TV penetration in Argentina, the report finds, would make it ripe for multiplay offerings, however, 'regulations preventing operators from offering IPTV and VoIP services mean that the Argentinean multiplay market is not as developed as it could be.'

From a service revenue perspective, mobile broadband Internet access is one of the most promising. 'Mobile operators are increasingly focusing on this application as the killer application for its 3G network, translating into an estimated 59 percent CAGR over the forecast period, to reach $343 million by 2014,' says Portela.

With mobile operators competing for 3G value-added services, near-term mobile capex spending will be driven mainly by continuous network expansion, capacity increases and upgrades to new technologies, such as mobile broadband technologies -- UMTS/HSPA, Portela thinks: 'Also, if the regulator allows telecom companies to offer pay-TV services, opportunities in IPTV may arise with Telecom and Telefonica (News - Alert).'