MAP > Internet Providers in El Salvador

Despite El Salvador being the smallest nation in the Central America region, it got fourth the largest economy in this region. The economic potential has been limited by the relative small population, while this country’s telecom is restricted by the poor infrastructure as well as the unequal income distribution. We have witnessed organizational delays that have retarded growth of the telecom services, though during the last two years, more progress being witnessed and more, the telecom sector has been among the most successful within the overall economy. The country’s fixed-line teledensity has been a bit low then Latin America and the Caribbean average. Usually, there has been a very significant drop in a number of the fixed lines since the year 2010, and in particular the year 2017, and this is largely due to substitution for the mobile-only alternatives.

Of all the estimated total number of telephones in this country, well, only six percent are fixed while 94% are usually mobile. The mobile penetration has been remarkably high, and this is considering this country’s economic indicators, being about one third higher when compared to the average for the Latin America and the Caribbean. Country has been among the last in this region to be able to offer the LTE services, and this is mainly due to inadequate provision of the suitable spectrum. The Multi=spectrum auction is yet to be held ad; it will allow mobile network operators to be able to enhance the reach and the quality of service offerings.

The country’s telecom legislation has been among the liberal in the Latin America region, hence encouraging the competition in various areas and permitting the foreign investment in all the areas. But, there have been no regulations that do promote the wholesale brand and hence in DSL market Claro being able to retain the virtual monopoly.

The sole effective cross-platform competition in broadband market comes from few cable operators. We have witnessed some market consolidation in the recent years, and in the mid-2017, regulator stepped in to be able to enforce the provisions that are related to proposed acquisitions by the Telemovil of regional cable TV provider by the name Caribena Cable. Through such a process of consolidation, there are a few dominant international operators that have been able to emerge, that have been able to manage to grow into almost all the sector through the process of convergence. The mobile market has been served by mainly five operators. They include Tigo, Digicel, Movistar, Claro, and the Telefonica’s Movistar.