{"id":130225,"date":"2018-05-11T06:46:56","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T11:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=130225"},"modified":"2018-05-22T19:09:38","modified_gmt":"2018-05-23T00:09:38","slug":"snapshot-2018-update-mobile-cellular-spend-caribbean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2018\/05\/snapshot-2018-update-mobile-cellular-spend-caribbean\/","title":{"rendered":"Snapshot: 2018 update of mobile\/cellular spend across the Caribbean"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 2018 update of our mobile\/cellular spend Snapshot, to determine the extent to which mobile\/cellular calling rates have changed across the Caribbean since 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n

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It is time for us to revisit the monthly spend for mobile\/cellular services in the Caribbean, based on pre-defined baskets of services. In this our latest exercise, we have again examined the standalone calling rates for 20 Caribbean countries, and examined the extent to which they have changed since our last exercise, the results of which were published in September 2017.<\/p>\n

Methodology<\/h3>\n

For our review of the monthly spend for mobile\/cellular service in the Caribbean, we continue to use the approach presented in the\u00a0Revised OECD Telecommunications Price Comparison Methodology (2006). The methodology sets out three service baskets, shown in Table 1, which suggest the volume of voice calls, text messages (SMS), and multimedia messages (MMS) generated by hypothetical users.<\/p>\n

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Table 1: Service baskets used in 2018 mobile\/cellular spend calculations (Source: OECD)<\/p><\/div>\n

Due to the uneven availability data on SMS and MMS rates across the countries examined, we have limited our review and calculations to the prepaid calling rates advertised by the two largest mobile\/cellular operators per country, where possible \u2013 and for which data is available. In countries where there is still a monopoly in the market, the rates of the incumbent operator were used. Table 2 lists the mobile\/cellular operators\u00a0included in this assessment. The rates used were sourced from the operators\u2019 websites, as at\u00a010 May 2018.<\/p>\n

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Table 2: Telecoms operators included in 2018 mobile\/cellular spend snapshot (Source: ICT Pulse)<\/p><\/div>\n

The monthly spend on voice calls, based the service baskets in Table 1, was calculated in the local currency and then converted to United States Dollars (USD), using currency exchange rates as at 10 May 2018.<\/p>\n

2018 monthly calling spend results<\/h3>\n

Using the mobile\/cellular calls volumes stated for the three baskets of usage, first we compared the hypothetical monthly spend on mobile\/cellular calls only, i.e. calls made on the same network; calls made to other mobile\/cellular networks and calls made to the fixed network. Figure 1 shows the results.<\/p>\n

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Figure 1: Estimated monthly spend on mobile\/cellular calls (only) in select Caribbean countries as at May 2018 (Source: ICT Pulse)<\/p><\/div>\n

For all call volumes, the lowest monthly spends on calls only, as of May 2018, was in Jamaica, where the amounts ranged from USD\u00a02.54 per month for Low Volume (LV) users, USD\u00a06.52 per month for a Medium Volume (MV) users, to USD\u00a014.19 per month for High Volume (HV) users. On the other hand, the highest monthly spend across all baskets was recorded in the Aruba, where amounts ranged from USD\u00a018.83 to USD\u00a0105.28 per month. Additionally, for mobile\/cellular calls only across the region, on average:<\/p>\n