Telefonica-owned Movistar has announced that it has allowed digital trunking operator Nextel de Mexico to interconnect with its networks using the calling party pays (CPP) mechanism. The move follows a filing of a complaint by Nextel last week claiming that Movistar had cut off interconnection for five days after Nextel implemented CPP. In November 2007 the regulator Cofetel gave to country’s mobile operators until that December to interconnect with Nextel, but only Telcel managed to do so. Following the Movistar agreement, Iusacell is now the only operator yet to ink a deal with Nextel.
In separate news, BNamericas has revealed that Mexico’s permanent congressional committee has approved a proposal to investigate whether Francisco Gil Diaz, currently president of Movistar, showed favouritism towards the cellco when he was finance minister during the administration of Vicente Fox.
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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.
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Vivo Participacoes led the Brazilian mobile market with a 27.28% share at the end of March, although this figure was down 0.04 percentage points compared to February, writes BNamericas citing data published by the telecoms regulator Anatel. TIM Brasil claimed second place with 25.87%, down 0.19% on the previous month, while Telecom Americas (Claro), backed by Mexico’s America Movil, had 24.78% (24.80%). TNL PCS (Oi) was fourth with 13.78% of the market, closely followed by Telemig Celular and Amazonia Celular jointly in fifth with 4.29% (4.31%). Brazil Telecom took sixth spot with 3.64% of the market, up from 3.61% in February, and CTBC Celular’s also increased its market share marginally from 0.30% to 0.31%, while Sercomtel Celular remained unchanged with 0.06%.
Brazil was home to 126 million active mobile users by 31 March 2008, up 1.36% on the previous month. Of the total, 80.87% are pre-paid and 19.13% on monthly contracts.
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- February 21st, 2008
- 2:13 pm
Pre-pay mobile tariffs in Mexico are 292 percent cheaper than in Central America, a study of pricing in Latin America and the Caribbean shows. Many operators who want to boost their subscription base are too focused on portability schemes, said the report by Signals Telecom Consulting. The consultancy said customers in the region were more interested in price reductions than in keeping their original phone numbers and said customers could be encouraged to put a different SIM card into their phone to make cheaper calls to a particular destination. The consultancy studied prepay prices in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama and found a low level of return calculated per minute of time available for each USD. Prices were adjusted for equality in purchasing power. Mexico’s Movistar offered the best return per minute for those spending less than USD 18 while for those spending more Iusacell offered the best return.
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- February 19th, 2008
- 2:03 pm
Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) announced that it is restructuring its organisation in the country. The company will set up five divisions to conduct the work that was previously undertaken by ten divisions, to increase operational efficiency. A large number of executives will be transferred to Telmex International, if they express interest in joining the new company. Telmex also states that so far around 750 people have left the company, mainly through early retirement. The company’s announcement follows a report in El Universal that stated that it would reduce investment to USD 550 million in 2008 from USD 1.28 billion in 2007, following the government’s refusal to allow it to offer pay TV services for another two years. The article stated that up to 4,000 jobs above department head level would go.
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- February 14th, 2008
- 1:56 pm
Mexican operator America Movil is in talks with TeliaSonera about entering Spain, reports El Economista, citing sources close to the operator owned by Telmex. Daniel Hajj, chairman of America Movil has met with a top director at TeliaSonera at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress and a legal team from one of the firms is also involved in the discussions. TeliaSonera controls 76.5 percent of Spain’s fourth mobile operator Yoigo. Telmex has long wanted to start business in Spain where its key rival Telefonica is the dominant operator.
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- February 7th, 2008
- 2:26 pm
Latin American mobile operator America Movil added 10 million new subscribers in the fourth quarter, for a total 153.4 million mobile customers at the end of the year. Net additions for the full year were 28.6 million, some 6 million more than projected atthe start of the year. The strongest growth came in its home market Mexico, followed by Brazil, Argentina and Colombia. Sales for the quarter rose to MNP 85.2 billion from MNP 67.7 billion a year earlier, as an around 15 percent increase in average minutes of use helped offset price declines in most markets. EBITDA improved 28.3 percent to MNP 32.85 billion, with the margin growing to 38.5 percent from 37.8 in 2006. Net profit jumped 49.4 percent to MNP 15.86 billion, helped by a lower tax bill. Capex was MNP 34.6 billion for the year, while the company finished the period with net debt of MNP 92.7 billion. America Movil said it has started the roll-out of UMTS in major markets, and expects to cover all the major Latin American cities by the end of this year.
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- January 25th, 2008
- 11:53 am
Telmex and Telcel are at the centre of four investigations in Mexico to see if they are abusing their dominant positions in the market, reports La Jornada. The Grupo de Telecomunicaciones Mexicanas (GTM), which belongs to Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica, has complained Telmex and Telcel are abusing their position in various markets such as in local fixed telephony.
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- January 15th, 2008
- 12:37 pm
Mexican telecommunications firm Axtel has selected Motorola as a vendor to provide access points, core network equipment, associated services and customer devices for its initial deployment of WiMAX technology. Axtel will purchase from Motorola equipment to install 802.16e WiMAX radiobase stations, voice and data customer premise equipment and PCMCIA cards. Laptops, PDA’s and handsets with WiMAX embedded chipsets are expected to be available by the end of 2008 or beginning 2009. With WiMAX technology, Axtel’s residential and business customers will have further availability of virtual private network services and access to high-speed internet in Axtel coverage areas. Deployment of WiMAX technology has begun in Monterrey, Puebla and Guadalajara.
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- January 11th, 2008
- 1:54 pm
Mexican telephony operator Telmex said it will not increase tariffs this year. In a statement, the operator said efficiency savings and productivity improvements at the company had allowed prices to drop in real terms for customers in the last few years. It said the basic basket of telephony products – line rental, average service, installation costs and long distance calls - had fallen in real terms by 40.1 percent since 2001. Telmex said it had also cut the price of its 1 Mbps Infinitum internet by 74 percent.
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Movistar signs interconnection agreement with Nextel (Mexico)
