Panama Reaches Historic 200 Percent Wireless Penetration

My friend Joachim Bamrud, Editor-in-Chief of Latinvex, sent me this recent article that they wrote about this historic landmark here in Panama.

Panama Reaches Historic 200 Percent Wireless Penetration
Only Macao and Hong Kong Have Higher Rates

MIAMI, September 20, 2012 — Panama has the world’s third-highest wireless telephony penetration rate, according to a Latinvex analysis of new data for 233 countries from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

Panama has now reached the historic milestone of more than 200 percent penetration. Worldwide only two other countries (Macao and Hong Kong) can boast that. Its penetration rate last year reached 203.9 percent. Subscriptions grew 9.6 percent to 7.3 million.

Latin America reached a total number of 623.9 million wireless subscriptions last year, an increase of 10.5 percent from 2010, according to the Latinvex analysis. The average penetration rate went from 98 percent to 104.7 percent.

Meanwhile, Costa Rica has seen a strong increase in the number of wireless subscriptions, largely because of new competition after 62 years. Costa Rica last year had 4.4 million wireless subscriptions, according to the ITU. That represents a 43.6 percent increase from 2010. That was the highest growth in Latin America last year. It also means that Costa Rica’s penetration rate has gone from 65.1 percent to 92.2 percent.

The increase in Costa Rica is due to the opening up of the market to private competition last year after a 62-year old monopoly by state operator ICE. New operators include Mexico-based America Movil and Spain-based Telefonica, the top two wireless operators in Latin America.

Cuba remains the wireless laggard of Latin America, with the smallest market and lowest penetration rate. It only has 1.3 million wireless subscriptions, or three times less than much-poorer Haiti. Its penetration rate of 11.7 percent is nearly ten times less than the Latin American average and ranks as the world’s fifth-lowest after countries like Myanmar, Korea, Eritrea and Somalia, according to the Latinvex analysis.

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