Summary
Our Dominican Republic-Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts, profiles the fixed-line, mobile and broadband markets in Dominican Republic.
Although enjoying a relatively modern and mostly digital telecom system, the Dominican Republic's fixed-line teledensity is well below the Latin American average. Mobile penetration is nearly seven times higher than fixed-line teledensity, and is about average for Latin America.
The Dominican Republic's income inequalities are still reflected in its telephone distribution; some people own multiple mobile phones each, yet there are communities comprising hundreds of families without access to a single phone line. The Dominican Republican government has been aggressively addressing the issue of access with a number of projects and a major broadband deployment partnership with incumbent Codetel.
Following the economic recovery of 2005-2007, investments in emerging services such as wireless broadband and VoIP gathered pace.
This report contains overviews, analyses and statistics of the Dominican Republic's fixed-line, mobile and broadband markets. The report also discussed convergence issues and provides forecasts of broadband and mobile phone subscriber growth.
Key highlights:
*In January 2009 Indotel called for bids from both national and international firms to administer the implementation of number portability. A phased introduction of number portability is envisaged by Indotel, starting with mobile-to-mobile and intra-regional fixed-to-fixed services by 1 July 2009. Inter-regional fixed-to-fixed and cross-platform portability will be mandated at a later date.
*By end-2008 Indotel had built over 1,000 digital access and training centres, or ‘public technology centres' as they had come to be known, serving hundreds of thousands of children, youth and adults in predominantly poor, marginal or rural communities. Indotel said it aimed to install 1,600 centres by the completion of the project.
*Indotel continues to closely regulate the Internet market as demonstrated in July 2008 when it closed 10 telecommunications companies in Santiago for illegally operating Internet and long-distance call centres.
*Despite receiving bids from over 20 operators, in February 2008 Indotel announced that the Rural Broadband Connectivity Project contract had been awarded to fixed-line operator Codetel. In September 2008, Indotel announced that the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) intended to use its Rural Broadband Connectivity Project initiative as a model for other countries with ambitions to enhance rural Internet coverage. By November 2008, 71 communities had been provided with Codetel's phones services and broadband. The month before, Indotel stated that by end-2009 the whole country would have access to telephone and Internet services as part of the Rural Broadband Connectivity Project.
*By September 2008, although incumbent operator Claro (formerly Verizon Dominicana and Codetel) was still the mobile market leader, competitors combined had managed to secure approximately 50% of the market.
Table of contents
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2. Key statistics
3. Telecommunications market
3.1 Overview of the Dominican Republic's telecom market
4. Regulatory environment
4.1 Background
4.2 Regulatory authority
4.2.1 Instituto Dominicano de las Telecomunicaciones (Indotel)
4.3 Telecom sector liberalisation
4.4 Privatisation of Codetel
4.5 Foreign investment
4.6 Number portability
5. Major fixed network operators
5.1 Overview of operators
5.2 Codetel (formerly Verizon Dominicana)
5.3 Tricom
5.4 Dgtec
6. Telecommunications infrastructure
6.1 National telecom network
6.2 International infrastructure
6.2.1 Submarine cable networks
6.2.2 Satellite networks
6.3 Infrastructure developments
6.3.1 Wireless Local Loop (WLL)
6.3.2 IP and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
7. Internet market
7.1 Overview
7.1.1 Internet statistics
8. Broadband market
8.1 Overview
8.2 ADSL
8.3 Cable modems
8.4 Wireless broadband
8.4.1 WiFi
8.4.2 WiMAX
8.4.3 Internet via satellite
9. Convergence
9.1 Overview
9.2 Pay TV
10. Cell phone (mobile phone) market
10.1 Overview
10.1.1 Cell phone statistics
10.2 Major cell phone operators
10.2.1 Claro (formerly Verizon Dominicana)
10.2.2 Orange Dominicana
10.2.3 Tricom
10.2.4 VIVA (formerly Trilogy Dominicana)
10.3 Prepaid vs Postpaid
10.4 Cellular data services
10.4.1 High capacity cellular voice/data services (1xRTT)
10.4.2 General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)
11. Forecasts
11.1 Forecast broadband subscribers
11.2 Forecast cellular subscribers
12. Related reports
Table 1-Country statistics-2008
Table 2-Telephone network statistics-2008
Table 3-Internet provider statistics-2008
Table 4-Internet user statistics-2008
Table 5-Cell phone statistics-2008
Table 6-National telecommunications authority
Table 7-Fixed lines in service, annual change and teledensity-1997-2008
Table 8-Public phones and annual change-1997-2008
Table 9-WLL lines in service and annual change-1999-2008
Table 10-Internet users and annual change-1998-2008
Table 11-Internet subscribers, annual change and household penetration-1998-2008
Table 12-DSL residential and corporate subscribers and annual change-2004-2008
Table 13-Cell phone operators, technology, subscribers and annual change-2008
Table 14-Cell phone subscribers, annual change and penetration-1997-2008
Table 15-Cell phone operator market share-2003-2008
Table 16-Claro cell phone subscribers and annual change-1998-2008
Table 17-Postpaid/prepaid ratio-2001-2008
Table 18-Forecast broadband subscriber growth-2009-2013
Table 19-Forecast cellular subscriber growth-lower growth scenario-2009-2013
Table 20-Forecast cellular subscriber growth-higher market scenario-2009-2013
Exhibit 1-Major submarine cable networks serving the Dominican Republic
