The telecommunications sector in Mexico climbed 12.7 percent during the first quarter, the Telecommunications Sector Production Index (ITEL) shows. Growth in the quarter was boosted by satellite TV services, as well as increasing long-distance incoming traffic and mobile telephony traffic. The mobile customer base in Mexico rose by 10.4 percent versus the year-earlier quarter, to 93.7 million users, with a service penetration of 83.4 lines per 100 inhabitants, according to the report by Mexican regulator Cofetel. The fixed telephony segment grew by 2 percent year-on-year to 19.9 million lines at end-March, or 17.8 lines per 100 inhabitants. The international long-distance traffic jumped by nearly 25.4 percent in the quarter on incoming network traffic. International long-distance traffic for outgoing calls increased by 18.4 percent in the first quarter. National long-distance traffic rose by 1.9 percent year-on-year. The cable TV subscriber base grew by 4.2 percent in the quarter, to 5.3 million total users. The number of DTH users jumped 66 percent, to 4.6 million at 31 March. The number of MMDS users fell by 30.7 percent in the period, to 303,000 customers at end-March. The paging user base went down by 49.8 percent during the period, to 10,882 subscribers at the end of March. The telephone services price index fell by 5.7 percent in March in real terms over the same period of 2010, mainly led by an annual decrease of 8.5 percent in the local telephony segment.
