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Movilenet deploys 1291 base stations, reports coverage expansion (Venezuela)

  • September 22nd, 2008
  • 5:59 am

Movilnet deploys nearly 1291 base stations across the nation, with an addition of 146,000 people to it’s coverage area. According Movilnet’s president Jacqueline Faria the telco, which currently testing 760 GSM base stations, is expected to launch GSM commercially along with it’s CDMA based network as soon as the quality of technology is on - par with the existing system.

   

Movistar Venezuela to earn highest ARPU for the period of 2008-2010 (Venezuela)

  • August 18th, 2008
  • 1:43 pm

Venezuela’s, mobile market, is far more dynamic than the fixed-line market, so much so that mobile phones outnumber fixed lines in service by around 4.7 to one. Mobile penetration is among the highest in Latin America. Venezuela is the regional leader in terms of SMS traffic, the number of text messages surpassing the number of minutes an average Venezuelan talks on a mobile phone. Venezuela is the only country in Latin America where CDMA is still the leading technology, but the two leading mobile operators, Movilnet and Movistar, are finally turning to GSM.

Notable highlights of the 3Q08 Venezuela Mobile Forecast include:

  • The number of subscribers in Venezuela will increase from 28 million in 2008 to a forecasted 31.6 million in 2010.
  • The wireless penetration level in the country will increase from 100.1% to 108% over this period.
  • It is forecasted that Movilnet and Movistar Venezuela will be losing market share to Telvenco. Movilnet is expected to see its market share decline from its projected 40% in 2008 to 39.1% in 2010 while Movistar Venezuela will see a similar drop in market share from 38.3% in 2008 to 38.8% in 2010. On the other hand, Telvenco which will see its market share increase from 21.8% to 22.5% over this period.
  • Movistar Venezuela will continue to receive the highest ARPU in the country. However, its monthly ARPU will still decline from US$ 23.34 in 2008 to US$ 19.15 in 2010. Overall, the average ARPU in the country will fall from US$ 18.52 to US$ 15 over this period.

   

Movilnet GSM network 600 BTS-strong (Venezuela)

  • April 29th, 2008
  • 2:53 pm

Venezuelan state-owned mobile operator Movilnet has now installed 600 GSM base stations across the country, the company said in a statement. Movilnet president Jacqueline Faria said that the company will launch commercial GSM-based services once the quality of service on the new network and the level of staff expertise matches the levels of its existing CDMA services. Faria added that staff are currently testing 300 post-paid and pre-paid GSM handsets.

   

 

Venezuela’s Cantv cuts public-to-mobile rates (Venezuela)

  • August 27th, 2007
  • 2:34 pm

Venezuelan incumbent telco Cantv has cut the rates of calls from its public telephones to mobile phones, the company said in a statement.

The measure includes all calls to mobile operators from public and metered telephones as well as from public telecenters.

The rate for calls from public telephones to Cantv’s mobile unit Movilnet is now 240 bolívares (US$0.11) per minute while calls to other mobile operators cost 260 bolívares.

The company also decided to cut rates of calls made through its calling card Un1ca to all mobile operators.

On July 1, the company implemented a 28% reduction in fixed-to-mobile calling rates between Cantv and Movilnet.

Besides Movilnet, the other mobile operators in the country are Movistar, a unit of Spanish giant Telefónica (NYSE: TEF), and Digitel.

   

 

 

CANTV posts solid 2Q results

  • August 6th, 2007
  • 3:07 pm

Venezuelan incumbent fixed line operator CANTV has reported a net profit of VEB266 billion (USD124 million) for the second quarter of 2007, up 178% year-on-year, on revenues that rose 31.3% to VEB2.09 trillion. In 2Q06 profits had fallen 16% year-on-year due to a reduction in income tax benefits and lower exchange rate gains. The telco’s wireless unit Movilnet ended June with 8.6 million mobile customers, up 31.2% in twelve months, with mobile traffic up 43% year-on-year, whilst its high speed fixed internet subscribers increased by 60.5% on 2Q06, to 609,000. Fixed lines in service stood at 3.7 million at 30 June 2007, up 18.4% compared to a year earlier, and public telephones in service grew 6.8% y-o-y to 7,438. Mobile business accounted for 48% of quarterly revenues, fixed line telephony contributed 39% and broadband represented 13%. CAPEX in the first half of 2007 was VEB602 billion, the bulk of which was spent on expanding mobile and broadband access infrastructure nationwide, with other significant investments in a next generation network (NGN) and in the expansion of the fixed line network. The company said that investment for 2H07 will be dominated by the ongoing rollout of a nationwide GSM network to operate alongside Movilnet’s CDMA infrastructure.

   

 

 

New players unlikely in spectrum auction

  • July 27th, 2007
  • 3:33 pm

The Venezuelan government yesterday launched a process to auction mobile spectrum in the 1700MHz, 1800MHz and 1900MHz bands, telecoms regulator Conatel said in a statement. Conatel said the auction is aimed at meeting the growing demand for mobile telephony faced by the country’s three cellcos Movilnet, Movistar and Digitel. Telecommunications Minister Jesse Chacon told reporters: ‘We want to favour those that can carry out the fastest rollout’, although he added that the process ‘is open for additional companies to participate.’ Concessions will be valid for 15 years and the initial bidding price is set at USD120 million. Participants will have until 10 September to submit bids, and Conatel will announce the licence winners on 22 October. Winners are expected to start using their new spectrum by November 2007.

   

 

CANTV, Movilnet plan VEB1.14 trillion investments

  • May 31st, 2007
  • 7:30 am

Venezuelan incumbent telco CANTV plans to invest VEB267 billion (USD124 million) to meet the rollout goals announced after its recent nationalisation, whilst its mobile unit Movilnet requires VEB860 billion to meet its targets, reports BNamericas, quoting the company’s respective presidents, Socorro Hernández and Jacqueline Faría. The telco expects to deploy 1.6 million additional fixed lines in the next 18 months, whilst expanding its fibre-optic network to 15,000km by the end of the year, up from 7,000km today, by merging with networks owned by utility companies Edelca (part owner of telco CVG Telecom), Cadafe and EDC. CANTV had 3.45 million fixed line subscribers at the end of 2006, according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database. The former monopoly’s 100%-owned subsidiary Movilnet plans to add two million new mobile lines to take its total subscribers to over ten million, and interconnect 5,200 schools, in the next 18 months. On 9 May the government upped its stake in CANTV to 86.2%.

   

Venezuelan mobile market nears 20 million subscribers

  • May 17th, 2007
  • 1:15 pm

Venezuelan ended March with a market penetration of 71.6 mobile lines for every 100 inhabitants, according to figures form market regulator Conatel. There were 19.6 million mobiles in use, up from 18.8 million at the end of 2006. Movistar controlled 41.9 percent of the market, Movilnet had 41.5 percent and Digitel had 16.6 percent. The Venezuelan fixed segment reached a penetration of 15.67 fixed lines for every 100 inhabitants, equal to a total 4.288 million lines. The number of internet subscribers grew to 762,868 from 759,846 at the end of 2006. The total number of internet users is estimated to be much higher, at 4.33 million or almost 16 percent of the population.