www.WirelessFederation.com/news: According to a report, mobile phones in Chile have increased to nearly 16 million, almost one phone per inhabitant. The report said, in May mobile phones increased by 6% corresponding to the same month, a year ago. Chileans used a total of 2 billion air minutes in May, with international calls down and domestic calls up year-on-year, report unveils. The country holds three main mobile operators namely Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones SA; Movistar, a unit of Spanish firm Telefonica SA; and Claro, a subsidiary of Mexican firm America Movil SAB.
On 07.27.09, In Mobile, By Editor
On 07.23.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: America Movil (AM) has posted a rise in net profit for the three-month period ended 30 June 2009, despite a downfall in subscriber growth. The company reported a net income of MXN22.5 billion (USD1.69 billion) in correspond to MXN17.7 billion a year ago, while revenue mounted 11.2% year-on-year to MXN94 billion. AM also said that service revenue increased by 15.9% compared to 2Q 2008, which it attributed to strong data revenue growth. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were MXN39.3 billion, a 13.4% annual increase. In 2Q 2009 AM reported that it had added 3.7 million subscribers, compared to 6.1 million a year earlier.
The sluggish growth of subscriber base is driven by slowing growth to an industry-wide slowdown, noting however that one positive it had seen from fewer additions was that subscriber acquisition costs had fallen.
On 07.22.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The telecoms regulator said, Brazil subscriber base reached 159.6 million at the end of last month, up 1.3% on the figure reported in May 2009, attributed to an aggressive marketing push by all major operators. The total addition reached 2.1 million in June, down from 2.9 million in May, it said.
Vivo maintains its number one position in the domestic mobile market with a 29.3% share of subscriptions. Followed to this is America Movil-backed Telecom Americas (Claro) with 25.4%. Third spot was claimed by TIM Brasil with 23.7%, and in fourth was Telemar Norte Leste (Oi), which increased its market share to 21.2% in June.
On 07.13.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: America Movil, the Latin American mobile operator, will launch the Apple new device iPhone 3G S in six countries across the region by July end.
According to the press release, the company said starting July 31 the iPhone 3GS will be available in Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Uruguay and the Dominican Republic.
On 07.08.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: América Móvil and Nokia announced today that they will bring a top of the line messaging experience in multiple devices to customers in Latin America. The agreement adds to the leading collaboration between both companies in music and maps, to meet the growing demand for multimedia options on mobile devices in the region.
Through this agreement, the Nokia Messaging solution will be available to América Móvil customers in seven countries before the end of the year. América Móvil is the first operator to announce a Latin America-wide offering of Nokia Messaging to its customers. (more…)
On 07.03.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news:TracFone Wireless, the America Movil’s MVNO has introduced a new prepaid unlimited offering at $45 per month that includes unlimited text messaging and 30 MB of data. The service is operational on Verizon’s network and available at participating Wal-Mart stores. The new offering looks like another major action in the battle for limitless wireless service.
The analysts reveal that this new offer will surely “stun industry participants”. Shares for the operators like Leap Wireless and MetroPCS have already seen a drop as the competition increases.
The new offer is also likely to affect Leap and Boost Mobile, Sprint Nextel’s prepaid unit, adversely.
Verizon spokesman James Gerace reportedly said that the carrier would make sure its network would not be overwhelmed if the TracFone offer results in a similar spike in traffic. Gerace also said that the new plan would not make Verizon change its own retail pricing. Verizon offers an unlimited postpaid offering for $100 per month.
On 06.24.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Cable & Wireless Jamaica, operating under the brand name LIME, has launches the 3G network in Kingston, St Andrew and parts of St Catherine. The launch was originally anticipates in November’08, but now the operator intends to to complete islandwide coverage of the 3G network within 18 months, aided by a site-sharing arrangement with rival cellco America Movil (Claro). ‘We expect we will have a very competitive network within the next twelve months and certainly within the next 18 months, the most competitive network in Jamaica,’ LIME country manager Geoff Houston reportedly said. ‘At this stage we are very focused on our post-paid customers but we will be offering a pre-paid service in the very near future,’ said Houston.
So far the operator has invested $40 million to roll out the network.
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.
On 05.01.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: America Movil’s combined first-quarter revenues from operations in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay have raised by 17.4% y-o-y to ARS 2 billion. Data Revenues climbed 49.6%, accounting for 34.4% of service revenues, almost seven percentage points more than in the first quarter of 2008, mainly augmented by 3G services development. The subscriber base in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay totals to 17.1 million in Q1, up 2.9% from 16.5 million users in December 2008 and 11.8% higher in comparison to the same period year-earlier. The operator ended March, with 2.2 million postpaid subscribers and 14.86 million prepaid subscribers across Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. EBITDA climbed 20.7% to ARS 637 million. The EBITDA margin for the period slightly rose to 32.4 % from 31.6% in the same period a year ago.