Snapshot: Peru's telecoms market

Despite political volatility, Peru’s telecoms market is performing well, especially in the fiber optics and fixed internet segments.

Mobile telephony growth slowed, though, but the market remains dynamic because competition among the four main players is increasing. In August, 518,280 mobile lines were ported, the highest figure so far this year.

According to the latest data by regulator Osiptel, fixed internet keeps expanding for a penetration rate of 33.6% in June, compared to 32.7% a year ago.

Chile’s Entel seeks to capture this potential and announced to aim for a 20% participation in the fiber optics segment thanks to an agreement with Movistar and KKR to create On Net.

Entel sees opportunity because broadband penetration in Peru is among the lowest in Latin America.

BNamericas reviews the latest Osiptel figures.

MOBILE

Osiptel registered 41.1mn mobile lines in service in June, down from 41.6mn in June 2022. Service penetration was around 122%. Postpaid represented 42.2% of the total.

Movistar lost 2.9 percentage points of mobile market share to Entel and Bitel, whose shares grew 1.3 and 1.42 percentage points, respectively. Claro's participation grew by 0.15 percentage points and the company remains market leader with 12.3mn lines, or nearly 30.0%, followed by Movistar with 11.6mn and 28.2%.

Entel reached 22.8% and 9.39mn lines and Bitel 18.5% and 7.62mn.

Flash Mobile, Guinea Mobile, Suma Móvil, Dolphin Mobile and Dolphin Telecom have a combined share of 0.47%.

FIXED INTERNET

Peru registered 3.36mn fixed connections, an annual increase of 5.1%, adding 163,000 connections. Growth was most pronounced in the residential segment, which expanded 5.5% to 3.13mn lines.

Fiber optics grew 76.6%. Cable modem and fiber connections each accounted for 46.6% of total lines. Fixed fiber-to-the-home connections reached 1.56mn, equal to the number of hybrid fiber coaxial connections.

The growth in fixed internet connections led to Telefónica losing 13.7% annually and Entel 25.7% of the segment. WOM, on the other hand, achieved a  375% subscriber growth and Win 74.3%.

Yet, Telefónica remains segment leader with 46.0%, followed by Claro (25.6%), Win (11.5%), Wow (7.61%), Entel (2.15%) and the group made up of Fiberlux, Fiberlux Tech and Fiberline (1.23%).

The number of 100Mbps connections doubled and represents 25.9% of fixed lines.

PAY TV

The number of pay-TV subscribers fell to 1.78mn, with a household penetration rate of 17.8%, compared to 18.8% in December 2022.

Over 1.3mn pay-TV connections are via cable and more than 400,000 via satellite.

Movistar has 52.9% of the market, DirecTV 18% and Claro 12.3%. The balance is held by small operators.

FIXED TELEPHONY

Fixed telephony registered 1.63mn lines. Segment leader Telefónica held 51.2% and Claro 35.2%. Claro's share increased 5 percentage points in the last year.

Entel has 3.27% and other companies the rest.

INVESTMENTS

Between 2013 and 2022, annual investments averaged 3.1bn soles (US$828mn), excluding amounts for spectrum allocation and broadband projects, Osiptel head Rafael Muente Schwarz said during an event hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce in August.

Peruvian operators invested 3.55bn soles in 2022, up 9.7%. Sector revenues reached a record 16.9bn soles.

Osiptel has not yet published investment figures for 2023 but Muente said the sector contributed 5.2% to first-quarter GDP.