The telecommunications sector in Mexico climbed 11.3 percent in 2011 compared to 10.6 percent in the twelve months of 2010, the Telecommunications Sector Production Index (ITEL) shows. Mexico added 3.9 million mobile customers in the fourth quarter bringing the total mobile user base to 95.3 million at 31 December 2011, equaling around 84.8 lines per 100 inhabitants, according to the report by Mexican regulator Cofetel. The fixed telephony segment declined by 2.6 percent or 222,000 lines in the fourth quarter of 2011. Mexico had around 19.6 million fixed lines at end-December. Fixed telephony penetration stood at 17.5 lines per 100 inhabitants. National long-distance traffic, measured in minutes, increased by 1.7 percent during the quarter, while international long-distance traffic slightly increased by 26.8 percent in the quarter on incoming network traffic. At the same time, international long-distance traffic for outgoing calls increased by 8.6 percent in the quarter. The cable TV subscriber base grew by 2.9 percent in the quarter, to 5.59 million total users at the end of December, and the number of DTH users jumped by nearly 30.8 percent to 5.6 million subscribers. The number of MMDS users fell by 32.4 percent in the period, to 215,700 customers at end-December. The paging user base went down by nearly 65.3 percent during the quarter, to 4,326 users at the end of December. The telephone services price index fell by 9.1 percent in 2011 in real terms over 2010.
