Celtro

Alegro awards supply chain contract to Brightstar, says crucial to its recovery (Ecuador)

On 07.23.09, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Telecsa (Alegro PCS) has selected Brightstar to award an exclusive supply chain services contract, which it says will be key to its attempts to turn its business around and gain market share from its larger privately run competitors.

‘We need a strategic partner that will allow us to purchase handsets under similar conditions to those of our competitors, America Movil (owner of Conecel [Porta]) and Movistar (owned by Telefonica), in terms of pricing and product choice,’ said Augusto Espin, CEO of Telecsa.

The cellco’s CFO, Mario Villagomez, added, ‘The relationship with Brightstar is key for the growth and success of our company. The acquisition costs, maintenance costs, financing and opportunity costs and most importantly the cost of lost sales due to stock-outs, have been chronic problems for Telecsa that translate directly to a loss of market share.’

Citel develops plan to eliminate roaming fees in South America

On 06.23.09, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (Citel) has proposed a plan to eliminate international roaming fees in the region, creating a single tariff for mobile voice calls. “We started developing this project and we plan to establish several multilateral agreements between operators and supervisors,” said Guillermo Thornberry, President of Peruvian telecoms regulator Osiptel. According to Thornberry, a similar proposal was developed in Ecuador, enabling the unification of tariffs in an area covering the south-western city of Machala up to Chiclayo, in northwest Ecuador.

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Movistar introduces ILD voice call promotion (Ecuador)

On 06.18.09, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Movistar has introduced an international long-distance voice call promotion. The prepay and postpaid subscribers will be charged ECS 0.11 (VAT included) per minute for calls between 19:00 hours and 6:59 hours. The offer lasts 19th June. The discounted tariff applies to international calls to numbers in the Movistar network in Spain, Colombia, US, Peru, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Brasil, Mexico, UK, Germany, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and Uruguay.

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Alegro PCS close to ink an agreement with foreign partners (Ecuador)

On 06.17.09, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Ecuadorian mobile operator Telecsa (Alegro PCS) is approximately two months away from reaching an agreement with a foreign strategic investment partner, media reports. The company’s President Cesar Regalado, reportedly said that it needs an injection of resources and expertise to better streamline its operations. Three overseas companies were previously reported to be in the frame to partner Alegro, namely Uruguay’s Antel, Indonesia’s Telkom and Venezuelan state-run cellco Movilnet. It was earlier said by Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa that Alegro would be put up for sale in twelve months if did not improve its balance sheet, after it accumulated losses of US$200 million.

Tagged with: Celtro • Domestic white-box handset • EBITA • UCC • VoIP.IM

Porta gains 46,608 mobile subscribers in April (Ecuador)

On 06.10.09, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Ecuador has crossed the 12.03 million active mobile lines mark at end-April, according to the data by Superintendency of Telecommunications (Supertel). Alegro ends April 298,581 active lines, of which 78.55% were prepaid users. Movistar posted 3.26 million lines in service at end-April, of which 83.1% were prepaid users. Porta reached 8.47 million active lines at end-April, with prepaid users accounting for 88.92% of its overall customer base. Porta leads the market with 70.44% share followed by Movistar with 27.08% and Alegro with 2.48%. In the month of April, Movistar gained 2,337 phone lines, Porta won 46,608 subscribers and Alegro lost some 7,363 subscribers.

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FDI in Ecuador reaches US$974Mn, reports ECLAC

On 06.03.09, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has reported that direct foreign investments (FDI) in Ecuador reached USD 974 million. The licence renewal negotiations between regulator Senatel and domestic mobile phone operators have decided to invest a minimum amount of USD 700 million in the telecoms sector over the next 15 years. Of which, Movistar will pay EUR 220 million, while Porta’s contribution has been set at USD 480 million. The study indicates that the investment made by the America Movil’s subsidiary Porta and Telefonica’s mobile unit Movistar to renew their concessions managed to offset the drop in FDI flows in natural resource sectors and other public utility markets.

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Movistar Ecuador posts a subscriber base of 3.3Mn at Q1′09-end

On 05.14.09, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Movistar Ecuador has posted a rise of 8.7% in its Q1′09 revenues to EUR 87 million. The service revenue for the operator grew by 17.1%, while outgoing revenue climbed 27.0% in the period. OIBDA stood at EUR 27 million in Q1, up 46.2% in local currency. The OIBDA margin was 31.7%, up 8.1 percentage points versus the year-ago quarter.
The operator added 48,285 new subscribers, taking the total subscriber base to 3.3 million, of which 87% were GSM subscribers.

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America Movil & Telefonica to maintain investment plans in Ecuador for 2009

On 04.15.09, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Regardless of the global economic credit crunch, America Movil and Telefonica plan to maintain their investment plans in Ecuador for 2009. America Movil will make an investment of US$ 120 million throughout this year, via its Ecuadorian subsidiary Porta.

Alfredo Escobar, Porta’s President reportedly said that funds will mainly be used to boost technological innovation, improve customer service and expand network coverage. Movistar has also repeated its initially planned investments of up to USD 85 million in 2009.

According to Hernan Ordonez, Movistar’s VP for regulatory affairs, “We must fight the crisis with investments. The [Ecuadorian telecoms] sector needs investments”.

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Number Portability in Ecuador by 12 Oct

On 04.13.09, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Telconet and Systor Tronheim have inked the number portability database administrator contract with Ecuadorian telecommunications ministry Senatel and mobile operators Movistar, Porta and Alegro. The subscribers can port their number for free twice a year. The subscribers will be charged ECS 7 for number portings.

Senatel will roll out simulation tests at end-July and commercially launch the number portability system in Ecuador on 12 October, Telecommunications Secretary Jaime Guerrero reportedly said.

Both Telconet and Systor are anticipated to invest USD 10-60 million to implement the number portability database, estimated to serve around 11 million mobile subscribers in Ecuador.

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Porta reports 8.1Mn subscribers at 2008-end (Ecuador)

On 02.10.09, In Mobile, By Editor

Ecuadorian telecoms authority Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones (Suptel) reported that at the end of 2008, cellular connections in the country reached a total of 11.5 million, with market leader Conecel (Porta) recording 8.1 million users, followed by Movistar Ecuador with 3.1 million subscribers and Telecsa (Alegro) trailing with 303,000 active mobile SIMs. Mobile Phone Users prefers pre-paid tariffs, said operators. Porta leads the chart in terms of pre-paid subscribers with 88.57%, 84.88% of Movistar’s total base and 85.56% of Alegro subscribers.

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