Panama: 4G Network Expansion and Government’s National Broadband Plan to Drive Data Revenue Growth

In 2016, Panama was the third largest telecom services market in Central America, behind Guatemala and Costa Rica, with estimated revenue of $1.3bn or 2.4% of GDP. This represents a 2.4% increase relative to 2015, mainly driven by fixed broadband, pay-TV and mobile data segments.

Key Findings

• The fixed/mobile revenue split will continue to be inclined toward the mobile segment throughout the forecast period. Nevertheless, fixed services revenue share will increase, driven by government’s national Internet network initiative for expanding Internet penetration in the country and attractive double and triple play services from operators such as Cable &Wireless Panama (CWP) and Cable Onda.


• The top two operators, CWP which provides fixed, mobile and pay-TV services and Digicel Panama, which provide mobile services, accounted for 57.7% of overall service revenue in 2016. CWP will continue to lead the Panamanian telecom market, throughout the forecast period, supported by strong investments in 4G network expansion and network modernization of its fixed infrastructure.


• LTE network expansion along with the rising demand for high-speed mobile data and increased availability of LTE-enabled smartphones will boost LTE subscriptions in Panama over the forecast period.

• Regional context: telecom market size and trends in Panama compared with other countries in the region.


• Economic, demographic and political context in Panama.


• The regulatory environment and trends: a review of the regulatory setting and agenda for the next 18-24 months as well as relevant developments pertaining to spectrum licensing, national broadband plans, number portability and more.


• A demand profile: analysis as well as historical figures and forecasts of service revenue from the fixed telephony (including VoIP), broadband, mobile voice, mobile data and pay-TV markets.