Country overview: Mexico - Mobile driving growth, innovation and opportunity

GSMA Intelligence is today publishing the seventh in our country overview series, following Sri Lanka, Peru, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Philippines and Argentina, in which we take a deep dive into the mobile market of Mexico and a closer look at the innovation ecosystem flourishing there.

Mexico is the second largest mobile market in Latin America, with 89 million unique subscribers equivalent to 69% of the population – a penetration rate lower than that of many other markets across Latin America.

In this report, we examine the reasons behind the relatively slow growth in recent years, including a concentrated market stifling investment and innovation in the country, and high prices making mobile affordability an issue, particularly for over half of the population that lives in poverty.

We discuss the market reforms implemented in 2014 to kick-start the market and address these challenges. We assess the impact of these reforms, including significant price declines for mobile services and a modernised mobile sector attracting ever increasing levels of innovation, entrepreneurship and investment to Mexico.

Finally we look at the role that the mobile sector is set to play in future economic growth in the country, and how mobile technology can help meet the public policy goals set by the current administration to expand Internet services to the entire population of Mexico.