Argentina has not seen the same level of development in converged and bundled offers as that seen in other markets in the region, despite the country's soaring mobile and pay-TV penetration, as regulators continue to block competition in its pay-TV market, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.

Argentina's pay-TV penetration is currently estimated at 64% of households, making it among the highest in the world, while mobile penetration is estimated at 120% at end-200, compared with 89% for the South American region as a whole, according to Luis Portela, Analyst at Pyramid Research and author of the report.

"The number of double-play connections will continue to increase over the forecast period at a 3.2 percent CAGR through 2014, and triple-play connections will expand nine-fold over the same period," said Mr. Portela, "but the latter could expand even faster if telecom and cable companies manage to find an agreement with the regulator over pay-TV and voice service provision.  The high pay-TV penetration in Argentina would make it ripe for multiplay offerings, however, regulations preventing operators from offering IPTV and VoIP services mean that the Argentinian multiplay market is not as developed as it could be."

From a service revenue perspective, mobile broadband access to believed to be one of the most promising areas: "Mobile operators are increasingly focusing on this application as the killer application for its 3G network, translating into an estimated 59 percent CAGR over the forecast period, to reach $343 million by 2014," added Mr. Portela. 

"With mobile operators competing for 3G value-added services, near-term mobile capex spending will be driven mainly by continuous network expansion, capacity increases and upgrades to new technologies, such as mobile broadband technologies (UMTS/HSPA)," he concluded.  "Also, if the regulator allows telecom companies to offer pay-TV services, opportunities in IPTV may arise with Telecom [Argentina] and Telefónica."