Carlos Slim plans to merge Brazilian unit to cut costs
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Brazilian fixed line and mobile businesses has been planned to be merged by Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim in a bid to cut costs. Under the plan, the fixed telephony division Embratel will be amalgamated with mobile arm Telecom Americas (Claro) with the local unit of America Movil possibly within the next few months.
Jose Formoso Martinez, the current CEO at Embratel, could be appointed the head of the enlarged entity. Claro’s chief executive Joao Cox is also in the race.
The financial results of the Brazilian operations has become a matter of concern for Carlos Slim and he views the structural merger as core to the group’s ability to stave off competition from the likes of Paris-based media and telecoms conglomerate Vivendi, Telefonica of Spain and Portugal Telecom.
Embratel Q1 net profit rises slightly (Brazil)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The financial result for the first quarter of this year has been announced by Brazilian long-distance telecommunications provider Embratel Participacoes (Embratel). Due to an increase in revenues and lower costs, the company earned a net profits of BRL271.1 million (USD155.0 million), up from BRL216.7 million in the same period a year ago.
Controlled by Mexican powerhouse Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex), the operator booked first-quarter net revenues of BRL2.74 billion, up 6.3% year-on-year. Earnings before EBITDA totalled BRL810.9 million in the period under review, compared with BRL660.6 million in 1Q09.
The gross debt climbed to BRL2.05 billion from BRL1.84 billion as at end-2009.
Telmex Internacional revenue rises 32.1% (Brazil)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The fourth quarter revenue of South American fixed-line operator Telmex Internacional has been reported which went up 32.1 percent to reach MXN 25.722 billion. Revenue increased 14.2 percent in Argentina, 7.2 percent in Brazil, 24.9 percent in Chile, 12.8 percent in Colombia and 5.3 percent in Peru.
With 21.8 percent increase, the revenue-generating units of the company reached 18.5 million at the end of 2009. The growth has been attributed to the Brazilian unit Embratel. With 47.3 percent increase, EBITDA for the quarter totaled MXN 6.371 billion.
An investment of USD 1.164 billion over all of 2009 was made by the Mexico-based operator, mainly in Brazil and Colombia.
Nortel wins Embratel deal for fixed wireless infrastructure
Embratel, Brazil-based long-distance service provider and subsidiary of the Telmex group, has chosen Nortel to upgrade its fixed wireless network to deliver high-quality voice service to around 1 million subscribers. The CDMA2000 1X network expansion will help increase network capacity and coverage to accommodate more voice subscribers and enable voice quality for Embratel’s wireless local loop service known as Livre. As part of the deployment, Nortel will replace Embratel’s existing Livre network in Sao Paulo, and once deployment is complete, Nortel will be Embratel’s principal wireless infrastructure provider in Brazil for Livre. Nortel’s wireless infrastructure being deployed for Embratel includes CDMA2000 1X radio base stations, base station controllers, CDMA Packet MSC and other related equipment.
Source- http://www.telecompaper.com
