Today, however, 3G accounts for just two percent of the wireless telecom market in Honduras, which has a population of over 7 million. With a total revenue of $863 million in 2008, the telecommunications market in Honduras ranks 14th in Latin America and fourth in Central America.

However, Pyramid says the market will expand at a CAGR of 4.6 percent over the next five years. “That’s the fourth highest expansion rate in the region”, underlines Jose Magana, analyst at Pyramid Research and co-author of the report.

Over the last few years, the mobile market is rapidly expanding in most of the dynamic markets in Central American countries.

“Mobile penetration, which closed at 87 percent in 2008, will advance to 109 percent at the end of the forecast period. Currently, 3G subscriptions account for less than 2 percent of the total base, but Pyramid anticipates they will represent more than 30 percent by 2014,” Magana said.

Honduras’ major wireless carrier Claro launched 3G services in early 2008 under the UMTS standard and then rolled out iPhone (News – Alert) in Q4 2008. Both the rollouts, that allowed video calls and mobile Internet, set the 3G services on the course of growth all over the country.

“Tigo is expected to follow in 2009 using HSDPA, since its operations in Guatemala and El Salvador already enjoy 3G coverage under that standard,” he continued.

Tigo enjoys over 70 percent of this voice-centric market, giving the company leeway to deploy advanced networks, paying careful attention to their cash balances as the financial crisis makes financing expansions more costly.

The 26-page report provides analyzes both the fixed and mobile sectors, tracks the market shares of technologies and services, and monitors the introduction and spread of new technologies such as WiMax,IPTV ( News – Alert), and VoIP.