{"id":148101,"date":"2019-05-31T05:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T10:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=148101"},"modified":"2019-05-30T15:37:14","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T20:37:14","slug":"snapshot-2019-update-mobile-cellular-spend-caribbean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2019\/05\/snapshot-2019-update-mobile-cellular-spend-caribbean\/","title":{"rendered":"Snapshot: 2019 update of mobile\/cellular spend across the Caribbean"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 2019 update of our mobile\/cellular spend Snapshot, to determine the extent to which mobile\/cellular calling rates have changed across the Caribbean since our 2018 exercise.<\/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 examined the standalone calling rates for 23 Caribbean countries, and examined the extent to which they have changed since our last exercise, the results of which were published in May 2018.<\/p>\n

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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), with adjustments. The original methodology sets out three service baskets, which suggest the volume of voice calls, text messages (SMS), and multimedia messages (MMS) generated by hypothetical users. However, cognisant that to a considerable degree, instant messaging has replaced SMS and MMS, we have limited use of the OECD methodology to focus on voice calls only (see Table 1).<\/p>\n

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Table 1: Service baskets used in 2019 mobile\/cellular spend calculations (Source: OECD)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Additionally, and to facilitate comparison, we have again 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 in May 2019.<\/p>\n

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Table 2: Telecoms operators included in 2019 mobile\/cellular spend snapshot (Source: ICT Pulse)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\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 31 May 2019.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2019 monthly 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 in select Caribbean countries as at May 2019 (Source: ICT Pulse)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

For all call volumes, the lowest monthly spends on calls only, as of May 2019, was in Jamaica, where the amounts ranged from USD\u00a02.44 per month for Low Volume (LV) users, USD\u00a06.26 per month for a Medium Volume (MV) users, to USD\u00a013.63 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\u00a021.18 to USD\u00a0118.44 per month. Additionally, for mobile\/cellular calls only across the region, on average:<\/p>\n