Wireless Federation

Personal, the Argentina based mobile operator, posted net profits of US$51.4million in Q3′08, a rise of 31% in comparison to $39.58 Million last year.
Personal’s revenues in Q3′08 counted to $0.55 Billion, up 23% from $0.45 billion a year earlier. The operator’s subscriber base totalled to 13.75 million in Argentina and Paraguay at the end of September, up by 18%.
According to COO, Telecom Argentina, Personal’s parent company, Personal has the highest market mix of prepaid and postpaid subscribers as well as the highest participation of value added services (VAS) for service revenues, leading to greater ARPU.
The Paraguay unit, which operates under the Núcleo brand, had a subscriber base of 1.81mn at the end of Q3, a rise of 21%. The Argentine operation totaled the subscriber base to 11.94mn at Q3′08 end, up by 18%. Nearly 66% of Argentine subscribers are prepaid.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

According to a media report, Telecom Argentina is testing an IPTV service among its employees. According to Simone Battiferri, Unit Director of fixed telephony the company’s regulatory issues department was in talks with the government over the possibility of telcos being allowed to offer triple-play services in the near future. Fixed line tariffs which have been frozen since 2001, telecom was hoping that government would authorise an increase in it.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

According to new figures from the industry analyst, the number of mobile connections in Latin America exceeded 400 million in the first half of this year. Mobile penetration rate is 72%. Also operators  are now turning to data services boost revenues. It is also forecasted that mobile connections in the Americas will reach 550 million by 2010, while penetration at the same date will stand at 93%. Top five penetration markets, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela have 76% of the region’s mobile subscribers, or 312 million connections.

Analyst also made reference to Spain’s Telefonica, the second-largest telecoms group in Latin America after America Movil, which in June announced plans to create a mobile advertising alliance across its operations in Europe and Latin America. Statistics reveals that Telefonica had just under 104.5 million mobile customers in Latin America at the end of the first quarter, or 70 million excluding Vivo, in which it holds a 50% stake only. The Spanish telco is still dwarfed by Carlos Slim’s America Movil, which claimed 146.3 million at the same date. Telecom Italia comes in a distant third with 48.4 million, followed by Millicom International Group with 16.2 million and Telecom Argentina with 12.6 million.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Telecom Argentina announced its expectation for CAPEX for 2008 to be nearly 15% of revenues, reports BNAmericas.

‘Our budget for investments this year totals approximately ARS1.6 billion (USD527 million),’ the executive said, before adding: ‘For 2009 we are also expecting a similar level of CAPEX compared to this year’. Revenues for 2008 are forecasted to grow 20% year-on-year to more than ARS10 billion.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Argentine investment group Grupo Werthein, the second largest shareholder in fixed line incumbent Telecom Argentina, would consider acquiring Telecom Italia’s (TI) stake in Telecom Argentina reports BNamericas, quoting local daily Infobae. However, another paper, El Cronista, has quoted a TI source as saying the firm is not considering a sale. Telecom Argentina is controlled by a company called Sofora, which has a 83% stake in Nortel Inversora, the holding company that owns 54.7% of Telecom. Sofora is 50%-owned by TI, with 48% held by Grupo Werthein and the remaining 2% by France Telecom (FT). TI has a 2009 call option for the 50% of Sofora it does not own, although analysts believe it will probably only go for the minor stake held by FT. Grupo Werthein has a call option on FT’s 2% stake in 2013, but TI has priority.

Last month, Grupo Werthein issued a statement voicing his concern that Spain’s Telefonica could influence decision making at Telecom Argentina as a result of Telefonica agreeing to indirectly acquire a 23.6% controlling stake in TI. This move led to local competition commission CNDC to begin a study of Telefonica’s potential impact on Telecom Argentina. The incumbent’s board quickly downplayed Werthein’s claims, saying the Telefonica-TI deal would not interfere in its structure. Grupo Werthein fears it will be pushed out of Telecom Argentina if TI executes its 2009 call option. Analysts believe that TI will want to increase its stake in Telecom Argentina, and will do so, unless the CDNC rules that Telefonica’s influence in TI would be excessive. One analyst, Emiliano Wachs of Grupo SBS, said ‘It is impossible to think that Telecom [Italia] will want to sell its stake [in Telecom Argentina] as the mobile business in emerging markets is growing…Telecom Italia has control of the situation, [unless] the antimonopoly commission creates obstacles to the Telefonica/TI operation.’

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Telecom Argentina posted net income of ARS 387 million for the first half of the year, taking into account ARS 102 million from discontinued operations such as the sale of Publicom. Revenue climbed 26 percent compared to a year earlier to ARS 4.2 billion while operating profit increased 73 percent to ARS 727 million. Operating Profit before Depreciation and Amortisation (OPBDA) rose 26 percent to ARS 1.41 billion. The company’s mobile base reached 9.9 million by the end of June, up 44 percent on the same period last year. Around 68 percent of subscribers were prepaid. ARPU remained stable on a year earlier at ARS 37. Telecom doubled its broadband subscribers to 602,000 and increased fixed lines in service 4 percent to 4.1 million.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Incumbent telco Telecom Argentina has reported its results for the six months ended 30 June 2007. Year-on-year, revenues grew 26% to ARS4.2 billion (USD1.34 billion), EBITDA also increased 26%, to ARS1.4 billion, equivalent to 34% of net revenues. EBIT (operating profit) totalled ARS727 million, an increase of 73% y-o-y, while net income was ARS387 million for the six months, including ARS102 million derived from the sale of its directories business Publicom. Telecom’s fixed line, cellular and broadband business all saw increased customer subscriptions compared to 30 June 2006; fixed lines in service increased 4% to 4.1 million, mobile customers reached 11.3 million (up 47% y-o-y), and broadband subscriptions doubled to 602,000.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

BNamericas, quoting a company statement, reports that fixed-line incumbent Telecom Argentina has launched a broadband service that does not require the client to sign a contract to pay a monthly fee, but rather only pay for airtime used. The new service, called Arnet Libre, was launched through Telecom’s ISP division Arnet and has a download speed of 640kbps and includes one email account plus anti-virus and anti-spam services. Telecom Argentina had 526,000 ADSL subscribers at the end of March 2007, more than double the 244,000 it had a year earlier.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Redline Communications Inc., (AIM:REDL) a leading provider of standards-based WiMAX and broadband wireless infrastructure products, today announced that Personal, a leading Paraguayan mobile and WiMAX carrier and subsidiary of Telecom Argentina, has chosen Redline’s RedMAX™ family of products to power its Hipuu! WiMAX service in Paraguay. With Redline’s WiMAX Forum Certified RedMAX products installed, Personal can now deliver a true WiMAX experience to thousands of businesses and residents in Paraguay’s capital city.

“To meet the expectations of our Hipuu! Customers, we required a true certified WiMAX solution that has a proven track record in delivering voice, video and data communications,” said Mr. Marcelo Prudencio, General Manager, Personal. “Redline is recognized worldwide as a leading WiMAX vendor with the experience and WiMAX Forum Certified systems that would ensure a reliable, scalable, carrier-class WiMAX network that supports more than 250 users per base station, which we believe is more than any other WiMAX solution.“

Personal is installing Redline’s proven high-capacity RedMAX system, which includes the RedMAX Outdoor subscriber Unit (SU-O), because it can be quickly and easily installed at the customer premise. This ease of installation, combined with the network manageability and provisioning supported by the Redline Management Suite has enabled Personal to rapidly deploy and expand its Broadband network, with the ability to sustain thousands of customers per base station. In addition, the RedMAX system has enabled Personal to extend its service area to reach additional customers, with links of more than 30 km (18 miles). Redline’s WiMAX solution also supports the delivery of guaranteed service levels agreements (SLA) for business and residential users, allowing Personal to tailor its service packages to suit its various markets. The Personal WiMAX network has been deployed by a collaborative deployment team that included Personal, Brightstar, a Redline Value Added Distributor and world leading wireless distribution and supply chain solutions provider, Cisco, Softnet Logicalis and Redline.

Personal has completed the roll out of the RedMAX network in Asunción and Great Asunción and is continuing its network expansion to enable the Company to offer a nation wide package of services for corporate and residential customers. Personal’s initial RedMAX deployment phase generated a rapid return on its WiMAX investment, enabling it to quickly initiate network planning to expand its services more to more customers in additional regions. Personal expects to triple the number of subscribers on its network by year end, resulting in one of the world’s largest WiMAX Forum Certified networks to date.

Among the many objectives of Personal’s WiMAX network, is its goal to increase the availability of Internet access for the Paraguayan population, especially its youth. Mr. Prudencio continues, “Along with the development of our Personal Hipuu! Service, the Company is carrying on a Social Responsibility Project which includes the donation of fully equipped computer laboratories, including personal computers, printers and free Internet access to those schools operating in low income areas of Asunción and the rest of the country.”

“As carriers execute on the demand of high-bandwidth services, they have a crucial need for high capacity, high performance systems that enable them to support more users via the most cost effective means available, and WiMAX provides an optimized path to accomplish this,” said John Bonadurer III, General Manager WiMAX, Brightstar. “Redline’s RedMAX solution has been proven to support high concentrations of users on a single sector, providing carriers with an exciting return on investment.”

Softnet Logicalis, Redline’s Silver Certified Partner, has played a critical role in the WiMAX network planning and deployment phases and will continue to work with Personal to ensure maximum network performance. The integration of Cisco’s core switching equipment will enable Personal to more easily manage all data traffic over Personal’s entire network infrastructure.

“Redline consistently delivers industry-leading broadband wireless products that establish the most advanced carrier-class wireless networks,” said Kevin Suitor, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, Redline Communications. “As the most widely-deployed WiMAX Forum Certified™ system, RedMAX enables the performance and features carriers need to deliver increasingly advanced communications services and scalability to expand their subscriber base over time.”

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Telecom Argentina, former monopoly telco in the north of the country, has unveiled its quarterly results for the period ending 31 March 2007. They show a 28% growth in net revenue compared to the same period in 2006, to ARS2.055 billion (USD668 million), driven in the main by a 43% increase in revenues from cellular subsidiary Telecom Personal, to ARS1.272 billion. Growth in subscribers was exhibited in broadband, fixed line and wireless sectors, reaching 526,000, 4.12 million and 9.31 million respectively. Also contributing to company revenues were 1.33 million cellular subscribers of Paraguayan subsidiary Nucleo. The group’s bottom line was a net income of ARS135 million.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News