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American Movil to begin iPhone sales in 10 countries across Latin America

  • August 7th, 2008
  • 7:23 am

American Movil, largest operator in Latin America, announced that it would begin selling Apple iPhone this month in ten countries of Latin America.

According to American Movil, the new iPhone will be available from August 22 in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.

It was in May that the company signed a deal for iPhone distribution across Latin America.

America Movil has already started sale of the device in Mexico and its Brazilian unit Claro is expected to begin sales soon.

   

8 Brazilian operators team up to develop IM services (Brazil)

  • August 6th, 2008
  • 2:10 pm

Eight Brazilian mobile operators, Vivo, TIM Brasil, Claro, Oi, Brasil Telecom, Sercomtel, Nextel, and CTBC Telecom Celular, are reportedly functioning together to develop and launch IM services nationwide.
Under the service the subscribers can exchange messages with users on each other’s network.

   

Argentina’s mobile market (Argentina)

  • August 4th, 2008
  • 2:17 pm

Argentina’s mobile market is the third largest in Latin America, after Brazil and Mexico and in terms of penetration, Argentina is the regional leader. The telecom sector has been growing rapidly, with a penetration of 75% mobile telephony. The three operators, Movistar, Claro, and Telecom Personal, run a close competition for market share. Besides the three main cellular providers, Nextel operates an iDEN network with a small but profitable slice of the market. GSM is the main technology in Argentina, with TDMA and CDMA slated to disappear after June 2008.
All three companies launched 3G services over HSDPA networks in 2007. Approximately 136,000 subscribers use 3G services in Argentina.

Country                       No. of 3G Users
Telecom Personal             75,000
Claro                              50,500
Movistar                         10,500

 

*Total subscribers in Argentina will increase from 38.03 million in 2007 to 44 million in 2010.
* The two largest operators - Movistar Argentina and CTI - will continue to have very similar market shares (by subscribers). It is forecasted that Movistar will increase its current market share from a projected 35.6% in 2007 to 36.8% in 2010 while CTI’s market share will drop slightly to 32.8% in 2010.
* Telecom Argentina will continue to suffer from the highest churn rate in the country at 3% monthly churn rate from 2007 to 2010.
*It is forecasted that Movistar Argentina will have the lowest EBITDA margin of 30.4% in 2010 in Argentina. On the other hand, Telecom Argentina, CTI, and Nextel will enjoy higher EBITDA margins at around 35% - 40% in 2010.
*In 2010 Nextel, will provide services to 2.9% of total subscribers, will receive the highest ARPU of $48.2 per month. It is noted that this is 3 times higher than the closest competitor, Telecom Argentina.

   

Peru imports 3.96 million handsets in H1′08 (Peru)

  • July 22nd, 2008
  • 10:53 am

Movistar, Claro and Nextel, Peruvian operators have imported around 3.96 million mobile phones in the first half of this year, according to data provided by the National Superintendency of Tax Administration (Sunat). Nokia leads with over 1.17 million imported units, accounting for 30 percent of total imports, followed by Motorola with 18 percent, Sony Ericsson and Samsung with 12 percent each, ZTE with 10 percent and LG with 9 percent.

The three operators had 16.9 million subscribers at the end of June, and are expected to reach around 18 million subscribers by year-end, adding some 2.4 million new subscribers this year. Mobile penetration in the country is expected to reach 63 percent by the end of the year.

Mobile phone imports are expected to reach 5million in the second half of the year, mainly due to the Christmas campaign that will increase revenues and add new customers. In addition, over three million devices will be used to replace old ones.  With nearly one third of mobile phone users expected to change their device for a new one each year, 2009 is estimated to see over 6.5 million handhelds imported for that purpose.

   

Upaid’s new Online Top-Up service for Brazilians. (Brazil)

  • July 15th, 2008
  • 10:56 am

People living in the USA can for the first time top-up the phones of their friends and family in Brazil, thanks to a new online service from payments specialist Upaid Systems.

RechargeBrazil.com is the first website of its kind: a bilingual English/Brazilian-Portuguese service accessible via any internet connection. Traditional long-distance phone recharge services have
required purchasing credit in a participating shop.

“RechargeBrazil is the latest ground-breaking service from Upaid and a real step forward for expatriate Brazilians living in the US,” said Simon Joyce, Upaid CEO. “It further broadens Upaid’s portfolio of over a thousand patents covering markets from Asia to the Americas.”

Upaid customers can already pay bills, make credit card payments, and top-up phone credit via a mobile handset. RechargeBrazil.com represents a first move into online services for Upaid, the international mobile payments specialist operating since 1997 and headquartered in the UK.

“Upaid investors can be proud of the new service, and confident it will bring still more value to the company,” said Joyce. Investors include billionaire investment banker Kenneth Langone and the Zeist Foundation: a charitable trust for underprivileged children and adolescents.

Working with PayPal, the global leader in safer online payments, RechargeBrazil.com has been launched with a consortium of Brazilian mobile operators including Vivo, Claro, TIM, Telefonica and Embratel. It is also available for Brazilian Portuguese speakers as RecargaBrasil.com.

PayPal customers can easily send phone credit to family and friends in Brazil by entering the mobile operator, location and telephone number of the person they wish to send phone credit to.

Alberto Rodrigues, Regional Operations Manager of Upaid Brazil commented, “RechargeBrazil.com is an innovative service that showcases the payment technology offerings of Upaid, creating a unique service and enabling users to top-up mobile phones in Brazil quickly, safely and securely.”

Mobile market passes 100% penetration rate (Uruguay)

  • June 16th, 2008
  • 2:50 pm

According to data released by GSM association 3G Americas, wireless penetration in Uruguay has passed the 100% mark. 991,000 new customers were added in the twelve months to the end of March 2008, bringing the overall subscriber base to 3.5 million and giving Uruguay the highest penetration rate in Latin America. Although 3G services were launched last year, take-up has been less than impressive, with only 8,000 customers to date.End of the first quarter of 2008 state-owned Ancel claimed 39.7% of the wireless subscriber market, ahead of Telefonica’s Movistar with 35.5% and America Movil-backed Claro with 24.8%.

   

 
 

Digicel and Claro sign on the dotted line

  • May 29th, 2008
  • 2:00 pm

Digicel and Claro have officially signed for the mobile concessions they won earlier this month. As reported on 8 May, the companies paid USD86 million each for the 20-year licences of 30MHz each in the 1900MHz band. The operators now have four months to build out their networks and reach interconnection agreements.

   

 

 

Brazil: 128 million active mobile lines at the end of April

  • May 21st, 2008
  • 2:27 pm

Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel, the country had 128 million active mobile lines at the end of April 2008. of the total, 80.9% were pre-paid and 19.1% on monthly contracts. A net new 1.9 million lines were added in April, up 1.54% on the previous month and 22.5% up on April 2007, lifting cellular penetration to 66.84 active mobile lines per 100 inhabitants, the watchdog said. BNamericas reports that the highest mobile teledensity was recorded in Distrito Federal with 123 active lines per 100 inhabitants, followed by the Rio de Janeiro state, with 83.3 lines, and the Mato Grosso do Sul state with 81.3 lines.

In terms of mobile market share, Vivo still leads the way with 27.2%, albeit that the figure is down 0.08 percentage points compared to February. TIM Brasil claimed second place with a 25.9% market share, followed by America Movil’s Claro unit with 24.8%. Telemar’s Oi increased its share of subscribers by 0.18% to 14% by end-April, while fifth-spot was shared by sister cellcos Telemig Celular and Amazonia Celular with 4.22% (down from 4.29% a month earlier). Brasil Telecom improved its position marginally by 0.02% to 3.66%, CTBC Telecom Celular’s share decreased from 0.31% to 0.30% and Sercomtel Celular remained stable at 0.06%.

The most popular technology in Brazil continues to be GSM, accounting for 106 million lines, or 82.7% of the total, at 30 April 2008. CDMA accounted for a further 18 million lines (14.2%), TDMA, 3.9 million (3.09%), and AMPS analogue technology had just 12,239 lines (0.01%).

   
 

Mobile operators sign contracts for 3G licences (Brazil)

  • May 1st, 2008
  • 3:10 pm

Following the successful conclusion of its 3G auction in December 2007, Brazil’s telecoms regulator Anatel and a number of the country’s mobile operators have signed contracts for rights to offer UMTS services in the country in the 2100MHz band, reports BNamericas citing an Anatel statement. With the contracts in place, the 3G licensees will be expected to provide mobile broadband internet services to more than 3,800 municipalities within eight years. By 2010 the 3G operators will also be required to deliver mobile telephony to 1,836 municipalities, which currently do not have access to these services, benefiting some 17 million people. The 3G licences are valid for 15 years, with an option to renew for a similar term, and under Anatel’s rules operators must cover all state capitals, the Distrito Federal and cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants with 3G within two years. By the end of year four, 3G must be available in all municipalities with more than 200,000 inhabitants it said, rising to 50% after five years in all municipalities with a population of between 30,000 and 100,000. In the same period 100% of the municipalities above 100,000 will have the service. After eight years, at least 60% of municipalities with less than 30,000 inhabitants must have access to the technology.

TIM Brasil has wasted no time in announcing its 3G rollout plans. From 1 May it intends to offer 3G services in the 2100MHz band in the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. It has already launched 3G services at 850MHz in Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Florianopolis, Fortaleza, Recife and Salvador. TIM expects to expand the service quickly to other main metropolitan areas. Not to be outdone, Telecoms Americas (Claro), which has also rolled out 3G at 850MHz, announced the launch of its 3G operations on 30 April on the back of a recent BRL2 billion (USD1.17 billion) CAPEX programme for its 2G and 3G infrastructure networks in 2008.

   
 

Claro to spend USD1.2bn in 3G expansion (Brazil)

  • April 25th, 2008
  • 2:02 pm

Telecom Americas (Claro), the Brazilian mobile operating unit of Mexico’s America Movil, says it plans to invest BRL2 billion (USD1.2 billion) on expanding its 3G network coverage in 2008. It is understood the investment does not include the BRL1.43 billion that Claro owes to the regulator Anatel for the UMTS licences it purchased last December. Claro’s 3G services are currently available in 40 Brazilian municipalities.