Ecuador remains one of the least developed telecom countries in South America
Isabelle Paradis
April 2010
More info >>

According to the information released by HOT TELECOM (www.hottelecom.com) in its latest report “Ecuador Telecom country profile”, Ecuador is one of the least developed telecom markets in South America (after Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru). The country had a fixed line penetration of 14.2% and 2.0 million fixed subscribers at the end of 2009 and the government hopes, through the newly created CNT, to increase fixed penetration to 19% by the end of 2010.

The country’s mobile market is by far the most dynamic telecom sector, after broadband, with an average growth rate of 32.5% between 2005 and 2009. With a penetration rate of 96.3% however, we can expect mobile expansion to start slowing as early as 2010 with a forecasted single-digit growth rate of 8.0%.

Ecuador is lagging well behind when it comes to Internet. Its penetration rate is very low at 2.4% and its growth has been stagnating in the last year with only 17,000 new subscribers in 2009. The number of Internet customers therefore reached 337,000 and the number of users 1.8 million at the end of that year. The growth trend is not expected to increase drastically in the next few years, as PC penetration remains low and the poverty level is still high.

The broadband sector on the other hand has been rising exponentially over the last 5 years, with an average growth rate of 97.5%. In 2009 alone, the number of broadband customers increased by 89.1% to reach 295,000. At that time, broadband penetration stood at 2.1% and represented 87.5% of all Internet connections in the country. ‘If the current growth trend continues, we can expect broadband connections to represent 100% of Ecuador’s Internet customers by the end of 2010’ HOT TELECOM’s President Isabelle Paradis said.

Find out more about the Ecuador fixed, mobile and Internet markets in HOT TELECOM’s new 32-page Ecuador country profile: http://www.hottelecom.com/ec-copr.html