The state of play in Puerto Rico's telecoms market

The number of broadband accesses in Puerto Rico grew to 3.8mn in Q1, compared to 3.73mn registered at end-2021, according to latest regulator data.

Mobile broadband was the main driver, covering 80%, or 3.04mn, of the total.

Contrary to developments in other regional markets, fixed broadband accesses fell by 10,000 to 756,000.

Claro, Liberty Latin America, and T-Mobile are the key market players and all three have launched 5G services.

The regulator does not offer data on technologies deployed or on market share.

Only Liberty Latin America provides subscriber data. By end-March, the company accounted for some 496,000 internet revenue-generating units and 1.05mn mobile subscribers, according to the latest results report.

The regional head of 5G Americas, José Otero, criticized last year at a seminar the way Puerto Rico provides data.

At the same event, experts estimated the potential value of the local digital economy at US$15.8bn per year.

VELOCITY

According to the latest data, 47% of the fixed broadband market covers speeds of 1Mbps-5Mbps, while 46% covers 5Mbps-100Mbps.

Barely 7% of connections provide speeds above 100Mbps, while 0.5% (about 10,550 accesses) don’t achieve even 1Mbps.

TELEPHONY

Some 4.49mn lines were for voice services, 3.76mn of which corresponded to mobile services.

Of the mobile services, 72% were postpaid and the rest prepaid.

Wired (fixed) lines reached 731,660, up from 726,740 in December. Of this total, 260,730 corresponded to voice over IP (VoIP) lines.