DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/xgn5p2/argentina_telecomm) has announced the addition of the "Argentina Telecommunications Report Q3 2012" report to their offering.
BMI has revised up estimates for the mobile market over our forecast period to 2016. Growth, though muted, exceeded BMI expectations in Q411, according to end-of-year figures from INDEC. The figures state that there were 57.91mn subscribers in the Argentine market at the end of 2011. The market has hit 142% penetration. There are signs that growth is beginning to slow, which is expected in a market that is so highly penetrated. Net additions totalled just 351,000 in Q112, following Q411's 1.53mn. Operators are reporting mixed performance in terms of ARPU figures in Q112, with Movistar and Telecom Personal reporting gains but Nextel and Claro reporting declines.
Telefónica's Movistar had a bad H111 in Argentina. It was served a US$41mn (ARS186mn) fine in April 2012 for service disruption, representing 11.8% of the company's earnings for Q112. However, it is not the only operator to suffer at the hands of regulators - the CNC is studying possible sanctions against mobile operator Claro, which suffered an outage on May 9. Claro argues that the outage was the result of damage to a fibre-optic cable caused by Buenos Aires city workers; however, given the government's need to raise cash, and seeming disregard for its own credibility among investors and the international community, we expect sanctions to be imposed where possible.
The market enjoyed the entrance of one new player, Usicom, a unit of Argentine public services cooperative La Usina. The operator entered the Argentine MVNO market in March 2012. The service, to be provided under the Nuestro brand, is offered by telecoms cooperative association Fecosur under an MVNO agreement signed with Argentine telecoms operator Telecom Personal.
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