Claro Paraguay expected to launch HSPA+ network in coming weeks (Paraguay)
America Movil owned Claro Paraguay is reportedly planning to launch its HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access) network in the country in the coming weeks. As per reports, the mobile network operator is expected to offer its users download speeds of upto 5Mbps. As per sources, Claro Argentina launched its own HSPA+ network last week, whilst Claro Uruguay is expected to launch its HSPA+ network later this month.
According to industry sources, Paraguay’s 3G subscribers had gone up by 14 percent in the first half of 2011, reaching almost 250,000 subscribers in June 2011 as compared to 217,000 subscribers in December 2010. Reports indicate that Tigo Paraguay is the market leader in terms of 3G subscribers, followed by Telecom Personal Paraguay and Claro, as at June 2011.
Telecom Italia says no plans to expand LatAm presence
Telecom Italia (TI) chief executive Franco Bernabe has stated that the company does not plan to enter new markets in Latin America, but rather focuses on expanding its businesses in Brazil and Argentina.
According to him, their presence in Brazil and Argentina, which are large markets, require a lot of investment in infrastructure and that means we have a lot on our hands to think about geographic expansion.
TI has subsidiaries in Brazil (TIM Brazil), as well as Argentina and Paraguay, through its stake in Telecom Argentina. TIM will invest in fixed-line infrastructure in Brazil through its fibre optic unit Intelig to support the growth of its mobile business.
Huawei wins Copaco 3G network deployment (Paraguay)
Paraguayan state-owned operator Copaco has selected Huawei for the deployment of a 3G network. The amount offered was $ 12 million, the lowest cost submitted at the auction.
The deal is valued at USD12 million, lower than the competing offers made by ZTE (USD13 million) and Ericsson (USD47 million), but this did not pass the first stage of pre-qualification.
Huawei will begin launching the network in January with a view to a commercial launch by June or July.
Alcatel-Lucent wins America Movil’s Mobile Backhaul deal
America Movil has chosen Alcatel-Lucent’s IP/MPLS-based mobile backhaul solution for its mobile networks in 11 countries: Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
According to Javier Rey, Alcatel-Lucent’s Vice-President for the America Movil , by consolidating services over a single, packet-based network, America Movil will dramatically simplify operations and reduce operating expenditures as well as be able to offer its customers the highest quality and most advanced mobile IP services. The company’s industry-leading mobile backhaul solution, which has helped service providers worldwide transform their networks to all-IP, will enable America Movil to economically and efficiently upgrade its infrastructure.
Alcatel-Lucent will deploy its 7750 Service Router (SR) and 7705 Service Aggregation Router (SAR) along with the Alcatel-Lucent 5620 Service Aware Manager (SAM) for the three-year transformation project.
Telecom Argentina net profit rises 46%
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 15 percent year-on-year rise in the revenues has been reported by Telecom Argentina generating ARS 12.26 billion in 2009. With 46 percent rise in the net income for the period reached ARS 1.4 billion. The mobile revenues of the company rose 16 percent to ARS 8.06 billion while the fixed-line revenues increased 14 percent to ARS 4.1 billion.
17% improvement in OIBDA has also been noticed which reached ARS 3.9 billion. 1.9 million new customers has been gained by the company in the year 2009 for a total of 14.5 million and out of total, 69 percent are prepaid and 31 percent are postpaid.
Company’s Paraguay unit, Nucleo had 1.8 million customers at the end of the period, down 1 percent from a year earlier. 2 percent increase in the number of lines of the fixed division has been showed which reached up to 4.36 million and the number of ADSL customers rose 17 percent year-on-year to 1.2 million users at end-December.
With 1% rise, ARPU for fixed customers reached ARS 40 in 2009.
Copaco unveils plans to launch mobile services (Paraguay)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Copaco, fixed line incumbent of Paraguay, has reportedly unveiled plans to launch mobile services in the last quarter of 2009.
President of Copaco, Jose Astigarraga said that the operator is in the process of acquiring 200 base stations for the network rollout. The incumbent anticipates to roll-out a bidding process for the equipment contract in July.
America Movil subscriber base reaches 17.1Mn in Q1’09
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.
Mobile operators post sales of $88 Mn in Jan-Feb’09 (Paraguay)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The mobile operators of Paraguay have posted sales of USD 88 million during the time period of Jan-Feb’09, up by 16.8% since last year. In the month of February, sales hiked by 14.4% as compared to sales in February 2008. Whereas the sales in February’09 as compared to January’09 fell by 6%. The mobile operators have made the maximum investment, of USD 1.9 million, on TV and print advertising during January and February.
Paraguay mobile operators reports a rise in sales by 19.1%
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Paraguayan mobile operators have reported the sales of USD 47 million in January, up by 19.1% over the year-earlier month, according to the Subsecretary for Economy and Integration within the Ministry of Finance. In comparison to the statistics of 2008, sales have been dropped by 12.4%. Mobile operators have invested around USD 1 million which was spent on TV and print ads.
