Digicel completes acquisition of Claro (Jamaica)
Digicel, a leading mobile telecommunications operator in the Caribbean, has completed the acquisition of America Movil’s Jamaican unit, Claro. According to reports, the operators entered into an agreement wherein Digicel would acquire Claro and sell its assets in Honduras and El Salvador to America Movil.
As per sources, Digicel will reduce the calling charges by US$ 0.035 during peak hours and US$ 0.023 during off-peak hours, across its networks. Further,the acquisition will provide Digicel with 3G access in its domestic market. If sources are to be believed, Digicel is expected to receive a net payment of as much as US$ 350 million in cash for this deal.
Digicel begins prepaid promotion (El Salvador)
Digicel has introduced a promotion for prepaid users in El Salvador. Subscribers who buy a prepaid line and make a minimum top-up of US$0.34 will receive 300 minutes for voice calls to a favourite Digicel number per week.
Customers will also receive the triple amount of airtime included on the top-up card. The promotion runs until 30 June.
Superintendencia de Competencia rejects Claro-Digicel merger (El Salvador)
Superintendencia de Competencia (SC), which is the competition watchdog of El Salvador, has rejected the proposed merger of America Movil’s local subsidiary Claro with Digicel.
America Movil has agreed to buy Digicel’s businesses in El Salvador and Honduras. the company filed for regulatory approval on April 1.
As per SC’s current decision, Claro and Digicel will have to restart the merger application process.
According to SC, the companies failed to submit the complete information related to the merger process. It added that this inadmissibility does not mean that the merger has been rejected, but rather that the two companies must restart the merger application process.
Siget begins mobile phone user registration (El Salvador)
Siget, El Salvador’s telecommunications regulator has introduced the registration process for mobile phone users across the country.
Mobile phone customers in Ecuador have three months to register their mobile phone number in the Rutem (Registro y Actualizacion de Usuarios de Telefonia Movil) system.
According to Luis Mendez, head of SigetCustomers who fail to identify by 31 August will have their line deactivated.
The Rutem database will contain the user’s name, ID or passport number, and the customer’s prepay or postpaid mobile phone number. According to Mendez, El Salvador currently has around 7 million active mobile subscribers served by five operators, namely Tigo, Claro, Digicel, Movistar and Intelfon.
Telefonica Central America ends Q1 with 7.09 mn mobile subs
Telefonica had reported over 7.09 million customers in Central America at the end of March, rise by 10.3 percent year-on-year.
Mobile net additions in the first quarter of the year stood at 223,000 accesses, up by 37 percent year-on-year. The number of internet and data accesses plunged to 2,700 from 12,700 in March 2010.
The broadband user base dipped to 1,600, versus 11,400 in March 2010. Customers at mobile unit Movistar reached 6.6 million at end-March, rise from 6.4 million in December 2010 and 5.9 in March 2010.
Of the total, 5.9 million were prepay users and 631,400 were contract customers. First-quarter revenues in the region were flat at US$190.30 million, while OIBDA fell 16.5 percent year-on-year in local currency to US$54.97.
Across the Central America region, Telefonica offers services in Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama and Nicaragua.
Telefonica offers Myriad social networking services (Latin America)
Telefonica has introduced Myriad Social Network Services in Latin America.
The launch marks the first phase of Myriad’s five-year partnership with Telefonica to provide social networking to the Spanish giant’s 13 mobile operations across Latin America.
As part of the commercial launch, Movistar customers can access their social networks, viewing all their friends’ latest messages while updating their own status across all of their social network communities simultaneously via one mobile screen. Telefonica currently serves more than 140 million mobile users in Latin America, including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
CWP wins contract to supply, manage El Salvador ’911′ platform (Panama)
Cable & Wireless Panama (CWP) has won a contract to supply and manage an emergency services call system for the national police force of El Salvador.
This is the first time that CWP will roll-out the platform it manages for police and ambulance services in Panama to another country.
The contract is worth around USD 14 million. The project is expected to help the police service to optimise response times to emergency calls, and support Government efforts to reduce levels of crime.
Once operational, it will be possible to monitor the location of every police unit in the country at all times. Under hte terms of the deal, CWP will install, maintain and provide ongoing training for the ’911′ platform as well as supply GPS-enabled mobile equipment and vehicle tracking devices.
Digicel-Claro telecom deal evokes fear of monopolized market (Jamaica)
If reports are to be believed, fears that the Digicel-Claro telecoms deal would give Digicel almost monopolistic control of the Jamaican mobile phone market are increasing.
According to Karl Samuda, Jamaica’s minister of industry, investment and commerce, is trying to calm such fears. He is vehemently opposed to monopolies. However, Samuda himself admits to being concerned about the spectre the deal evokes. Anything that suggests the re-emergence of a monopoly is something they will be monitoring very closely because they do not want to return to a situation where they have a dominant supplier taking advantage of other players in the system – whether new or old.
According to the minister, the Jamaican government is keeping a close watch on the transaction through the Fair Trading Commission (FTC), because the bottom line is that he is very concerned about the emergence of a monopoly situation, especially in an area of communication and the transfer of information.
On 11 March, Digicel agreed to acquire America Movil’s Claro business in Jamaica. In turn, America Movil will acquire Digicel’s businesses in El Salvador and Honduras. No financial details related to the transaction have been revealed.
LIME wants regulator to assess Digicel-Claro deal (Jamaica)
LIME Jamaica has stated that given the significance of the Digicel- Claro merger to the Jamaican telecommunications industry, the Government, the Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR) and the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) should carefully assess the deal, before approval is given by the relevant minister.
Digicel and Claro last week announced that Digicel would sell its businesses in El Salvador and Honduras to America Movil, while in turn Claro Jamaica would be sold to Digicel.
According to Lime’s Managing Director, Garry Sinclair, as a company proudly serving Jamaica for over 140 years, providing employment for more than 1,400 Jamaican workers and with almost 25,000 Jamaican shareholders, they stand ready to cooperate with all industry players to ensure the interests of their country and the Jamaican consumer are best served.
Digicel buys rival network in Jamaica
Pan-Caribbean operator, Digicel has announced that it has signed an agreement with America Movil to acquire its Claro business in Jamaica, and to sell to America Movil its businesses in El Salvador and Honduras.
According to the companies, the financial terms of the transaction are not being disclosed; however, there will be a net cash payment to Digicel.
Digicel is already the dominant operator in Jamaica after it broke the former Cable & Wireless monopoly. Claro was relaunched a couple of years ago with a huge marketing push, particularly aimed at the youth market.
Digicel confirmed that the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the second calendar quarter.
