Mobile Affordability and Pricing
Affordability is a formidable barrier to ICT adoption and use. Whether telephony and ICT services are affordable refers to actual pricing but also to the bundling of services and packages that can result in opaque pricing schemes that may or may not be affordable. Because mobile telephony is so central to ICT access by the poor, this research cycle will build upon the mobile affordability study undertaken by DIRSI in the previous cycle in three ways:
- extending the data collection and analysis to the entire region (the previous study was limited to eight markets);
- creating an affordability software tool (2) to allow regulators and other policy actors to track affordability levels as mobile tariffs and macroeconomic variables change over time;
- building an affordability database (3) that can be used by other researchers and policy actors.
The results of this project will help advance the debate about access to mobile telephony in the LAC region by 1) quantifying the trends in mobile services affordability across the region; 2) identifying the key economic and policy variables affecting mobile prices; and 3) providing evidence and tools for stakeholders involved in national and regional debates.
Execution Period: May-November, 2009 (first phase)
Lead researchers: Hernan Galperin, Roxana Barrantes
Expected Outputs:
1. A mobile affordability report covering the entire region.
2. Updated affordability software tool and database
Below this text you will find information related to this project as it becomes available.
New data on mobile tariffs in Latin America
Preliminary results of DIRSI's research on mobile tariffs in Latin America were presented by Dr. Hernan Galperin at the LIRNEasia@5 conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 9 to 11 December 2009.
The results indicate that while there has been progress in the right direction, mobile tariffs in Latin America remain higher than those of developed countries and much higher than those of emerging markets in Asia.
Are mobiles expensive?
In an interesting column about the cost of mobile telephony published on 6 January 2010, Hay más celulares, pero ¿cuánto cuesta usarlos? (There are more mobiles, but how much does it cost to use them?), Humberto Campodónico, columnist for the Peruvian newspaper, La República, uses data from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and updated data from DIRSI’s report Affordability of mobile phone service in La
Tariffs and affordability gap of mobile telephony services in Latin America and the Caribbean
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Original Title: Tarifas y brecha de asequibilidad de los servicios de telefonía móvil en América Latina y el Caribe
A Policy Brief based on this paper is available here >>>
Mobile Telephony in Latin America and the Caribbean: Who can afford it?
Mobile telephony has experienced a dramatic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean and it has an average penetration level of around 80%. But can mobile users afford the service's cost? What happens if we take income into account and compare Latin America's cost with those of other regions. Is mobile telephony in Latin America cheap or expensive?
Answers to these questions can be found in a study by Hernán Galperín within the framework of DIRSI's research on ICT Indicators and Mobile affordability.
Mobile telephony: Are services in Latin America affordable?
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Mobile telephony has grown spectacularly in Latin America, with penetration currently around 80 percent. But can users afford the service? If we consider the users’ income and compare prices with those in other regions, is mobile telephony in Latin American countries cheap or expensive?
Based on:
Galperin, Hernan. Tariffs and affordability gap of mobile telephony services in Latin America and the Caribbean. Buenos Aires: DIRSI, 2010
