Venezuela Long-Awaited 4g Spectrum Market Worldwide Forecast 2015

'Venezuela: Long-Awaited 4G spectrum Available, but Operators Face Uphill Battle to Build Coverage,' a new Country Intelligence Report by Pyramid Research, offers a precise, incisive profile of Venezuela's mobile and fixed telecommunications and pay-TV markets based on comprehensive proprietary data and insights from our research in the Venezuelan market. Published annually, this presentation-quality, executive-level report provides detailed analysis of the near-term opportunities, competitive dynamics and evolution of demand by service type and technology/platform across the fixed telephony and broadband, mobile and pay-TV sectors, in addition to a review of key regulatory trends.

Key Findings

The Venezuelan telecom services market recorded total revenue of $14.0bn in 2014. Over the next five years, in US dollar terms, Venezuela's total market revenue will shrink at a CAGR of -4.4% to reach $11.2bn in 2019 (in local currency terms, the telecom services market will grow at a five-year CAGR of 22.1%).

Fixed broadband penetration of population stood at 8.0% at year-end 2014, which translates into 2.4m lines. We expect broadband lines to reach 3.7m by year-end 2019, a penetration rate of 11.2% of the population. Much of the growth will be driven by Cantv reaching previously unserved areas of the country with comparably affordable xDSL-based prepaid and postpaid plans.

After many delays, the long-awaited 4G auction in Venezuela took place in December 2014 (originally announced for year-end 2013). Movistar secured 20MHz and 40MHz of spectrum in the AWS and 2.5GHz bands, respectively. Movilnet secured 20MHz in the AWS band, while DirecTV secured 40MHz in the 2.5GHz band.

During 2014, pay-TV operators in Venezuela faced significant challenges to obtain foreign currency for the purchase of content and new set-top boxes. Despite this, pay-TV subscriptions registered year-on-year growth of 10.9% in 2014, to reach 4.6m and a household penetration of 69.3%,...