The mobile phone market in Colombia, one of the region’s fastest-growing major markets, is set to register strong growth in mobile broadband and M2M over the remainder of the decade.
According to GSMA Intelligence, the research arm of the GSMA, Colombia had more than 3.8 million 4G connections at the end of 2015, a figure forecast to exceed 20 million by 2020. In percentage terms, 4G accounted for 8 per cent of Colombia’s 51 million mobile connections (excluding M2M) in 2015. It is forecast that 4G will account for 32 per cent of the expected 64 million total connections in Colombia by 2020.
Mobile broadband, which includes 3G and 4G, reached more than 24 million connections in 2015 – roughly 47 per cent of the total. GSMA Intelligence forecasts that by 2020, mobile broadband connections will reach 45 million, accounting for 70 per cent of total connections.
“Mobile broadband is the primary method of delivering affordable internet access across the Latin America and Caribbean region,” said Sebastian Cabello, Head of GSMA Latin America. “Digital inclusion can deliver a range of social and economic benefits by bringing communications services to previously unconnected populations. The GSMA is actively working with mobile operators, governments and the wider international development community to design and implement commercially sustainable and scalable initiatives that can unlock the key supply-side and demand-side barriers to adoption of mobile internet services”.
This growth trend is common to most Latin American countries, although the speed of adoption in Colombia is remarkable. As in other countries across the region, mobile broadband growth corresponds to rising smartphone adoption. Smartphones represented 37 per cent of total Colombia mobile connections in 2015 and are forecast to represent over two thirds of the total by 2020.
The GSMA Intelligence data also points to strong growth in Colombia’s M2M market. The number of cellular M2M connections in the country are forecast to more than double over the next five years, increasing from 1.5 million today to 3.7 million by 2020.