In Costa Rica, there are 116 active cellular phones for 100 people, according to the latest report by the Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones (Sutel).

The study, whose results were released Wednesday reveals that there are now 5,378,082 active (postpaid and prepaid) cellular telephone lines for a population of 4.6 million.

The largest number of active lines are “prepaid”, showing a growth of 179% from 1,518,914 active lines in 2010 to 4,420,967 in 2012.

Meanwhile “postpaid” or subscription lines have dropped from 1,609,458 to 1,137,115 during the 2010-2012 period.

Sutel attributes the rise in mobile services to greater choices of telecommunications in the market and the increase in purchasing power in the country.

The majority of cell phone service users say prefer prepaid for their ability to control consumption.

Currently there are five providers of cellular telephone services in Costa Rica: Kolbi (brand of state owned ICE), Claro, Movistar, Tuyo and Fullmovil. The latter two working under agreements of the first three.

The survey also shows ICE losing its customer base, dropping to 79% from 90%, while Movistar moved up 3 points to 7% of the market share, Claro gained 3%, and Tuyo and Fullmovil both increased by 2% each.

Article by QCostaRica.com