Telefonica signs network sharing agreement with China Unicom (Spain, China)
Spanish telecom operator Telefonica has reportedly entered into a strategic partnership with China Unicom, wherein both operators will use each other’s networks to expand their coverage. According to reports, the deal will provide Telefonica access to China Unicom’s network in the regions of Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Australia, France and Sweden.
In return, China Unicom can reportedly increase its presence through Telefonica’s network in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico, USA, Puerto Rico, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland.
Reports suggest that Telefonica believes this agreement will help both operators expand their capabilities to provide telecom services to various customers in different geographic areas.
Virgin Mobile to launch MVNO services in Chile in 2012 (Latin America)
Virgin Mobile, an innovative wireless service provider, plans to launch mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) services in Chile in Latin America by early 2012. As per reports, the company will use Movistar’s (Telefonica) network and has signed an agreement for the same. The company, which begins its MVNO services in Chile, plans to expand its services in Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, Colombia and Mexico. The company aims to target the youth consumers by positioning itself as a fresh alternative to existing wireless providers.
As per sources, Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin, has said that they are very excited about what they have achieved in their first commercial operation in Chile. He added that this is a very interesting project for Virgin and they believe that all Virgin Mobile Chile clients will be very satisfied with the services they will offer with this launch. Further, Claudio Muñoz, Executive President, Movistar has said they are convinced that this agreement will make the telecommunications market grow in Chile. The fact that Virgin Mobile will start operating as a new mobile operator shows that this type of business is likely between companies.
TeleFonica’s unit Movistar may shell out US $830 million for renewal of Operating Licence (Peru)
Movistar, a subsidiary of the Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica, might be required to pay US $830 million to get its operating licence renewed, as per reports. The Peruvian regulatory authority, Osiptel, made this recommendation to the Ministry of Transportation and Communication, who will be the final deciding authority. According to Guillermo Thornberry, President Osiptel, the value for the licence in the capital city Lima is valuated at US $319 million.
This however, did not go down well with the Telefonica officials who have reportedly claimed that under the current legislation in Peru, the company is not required to pay for having its licence renewed. The Spanish giant Telefonica is a dominant player in the telecommunication sector with a subscriber base of 290 million as on March 2011.
Lebara introduces summer promotion in Spain
Lebara Movil, which is a MVNO in Spain, has introduced a summer promotion. Lebara will lower international mobile call tariffs by an average of 41% until 31 July.
Lebara customers can make calls to 233 country destinations. Lebara will maintain its 1 cent per minute offer for calls to Argentina, Brasil, China, Colombia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Romania and Venezuela.
National calls to fixed and mobile numbers will be charged 9 cents per minute. SMS are charged US$0.15 to national numbers and US$0.23 to international numbers.
Viettel to spend $250 mn in Peru fibre optic network (Vietnam)
Viettel is planning to invest US$250 million in the installment of its own fibre-optic network in Peru.
According to Peruvian transport and communications minister Enrique Cornejo, the planned US$250 million will be invested over the next five years.
According to Cornejo, Viettel is planning to build a fibre-optic network nationwide. Connections will primarily cover Peru’s largest cities, to be later expanded across the country, including the mountains and the Amazon area. The fibre optic network already installed in Peru only runs along the coast, from Tumbes to Tacna and in parts of Arequipa and Huancayo (Junin).
The minister added that the problem is in the rest of the country, the entire communications system uses other channels, including satellite and wireless [technology], but do not have the QOS provided by fibre optic cables in terms of speed, durability, and resilience. Therefore, the government recently ruled that large infrastructure projects in Peru must include ducts for the installation of fibre optic cables.
Telefonica partners with Cellcrypt to launch encrypted Voice services (Latin America)
Cellcrypt, the leading provider of encrypted voice calling on mobile phones, today announced that it reached an agreement with Telefónica, one of the largest telecom operators in the world, to include Cellcrypt Mobile™ in their product and service portfolio across the 13 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean where Telefónica operates.
Cellcrypt Mobile is used by governments and corporations globally and is a downloadable application for off-the-shelf smartphones that provides end-to-end encryption of voice calls over cellular (2G, 3G), Wi-Fi and satellite networks. Cellcrypt Mobile is certified to U.S. government National Institute of Standards and Technology FIPS 140-2 security standard and has been awarded the CESG Claims Tested Mark (CCTM) from the U.K. government’s information assurance authority.
The announcement is part of an extensive partnership agreement that allows Telefónica to promote, sell and support Cellcrypt Mobile and associated technologies within certain countries.
As Governments and Corporations increasingly use cell phones for operational and administrative communications they have an increased need for government-grade protection from increasingly sophisticated unauthorized interception threats. This protection is required end-to-end so as to assure users that they control the security of calls along all points of the call path between caller and recipient, and have adequately mitigated risks in compliance with internal security policies.
Cellcrypt’s software provides end-to-end voice call encryption on smartphones making secure calling with high voice quality and low latency as easy as a normal cell phone call. Utilizing the IP data channel, secure calls can be made using both Telefónica’s cellular and Wi-Fi® networks from the same handset. As a software-only solution, deployment to personnel can take as little as 10 minutes anywhere in the world. Only Internet access is required.
“We are delighted to be able to offer our government and corporate customers an end-to-end encrypted voice calling capability with strong, accredited cryptography and requiring no physical hardware. This is important as our customers have a need for rapid and flexible deployment and redeployment,” said Raul Fraile, Deputy Director Business Development, Applications and Partner Relationships of Telefónica Latinoamérica, “and the ability to have interoperability between several different brands of popular smartphones is also very important to more broadly meet the diverse needs of our customers.“
“Cell phones are the most convenient, and often only, option for many operational and administrative communications across governments and business – just as they are in our personal lives,” said Richard Greco, CEO of Cellcrypt. “One problem with cell phone eavesdropping is that you rarely know it has happened. Rather than hope that the inevitable sensitive and confidential conversations that occur on cell phones are not compromised, this solution means that Telefónica customers can depend on their cell phones to be a secure and exploit their mobility, convenience, ease-of-use and interoperability as an important communications asset.”
Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world in terms of number of accesses and market capitalization. Its activities are centered mainly on the fixed and mobile telephony businesses with broadband as the key tool for the development of both. The company has a customer base of more than 290 million customers around the world. Telefónica has a strong presence in Europe and Latin America, where the company focuses an important part of its growth strategy. Telefónica is a 100% listed company, with more than 1.5 million direct shareholders.
For more information please visit: www.telefonica.com.
Movistar offers White iPhone 4 to Peru
Movistar has launched the white iPhone 4 in Peru. The cost of the handset and associated subscriptions are the same as for the black model.
Prepaid customers can acquire the iPhone 4 16GB and 32 GB for US$860.47 and US$1039.95, respectively.
The 16GB variant is also available for prices ranging between US$607.54 andUS$466.42 in combination with an iPhone dedicated tariff plan.
Contract subscribers can acquire the 32GB variant for prices ranging between US$607.54 and US$752.28.
iPhone accounts 10% of smartphone sales in Peru
Omar Balbuena, head of mobile phones at Movistar Peru has stated that Apple’s iPhone accounts for nearly 10 percent of the overall smartphone sales in Peru.
According to Balbuena, nearly 60 percent of customers who access social networks in Peru do it via mobile phones, particularly smartphones. The Movistar representative also said that 90 percent of the iPhone devices sold in Peru have been acquired in combination with a postpaid tariff plan.
Additionally, 70 percent of the overall iPhone sales are concentrated in the Lima capital area, while across the country, the highest iPhone sales were registered in the cities of Arequipa, Piura and Trujillo (La Libertad).
Viettel plans to expand in Argentina (Vietnam)
Viettel is planning to expand to Argentina. Viettel deputy general director Nguyen Manh Hung revealed that this ambition at a meeting with the Argentine secretary of communications, Carlos Lisandro Salas.
In March, Viettel was granted a mobile licence for Peru and the company plans to continue to study other markets in Latin America.
Claro Peru Q1 revenues rise by 17%
America Movil’s Claro Peru’s revenues increase 17 percent year-on-year to US$299.52 million in Q1.
Wireless gross service revenues were up 17.4 percent as data revenues jumped 71.2 percent. ARPUs were practically flat at US$7.78 in spite of the 15.5 percent reduction in the average revenue per minute of voice thanks to their being supported by data and traffic expansion.
Fixed-line revenues (which account for only 13 percent of total revenues) were up 22 percent as a result of the increase in PayTV and data revenues that more than offset the decline in fixed voice service revenues. EBITDA for the quarter was US$143.74 million, 28.3 percent above that of the year-earlier quarter. It was equivalent to 47.9 percent of its revenues and represented a margin expansion of 4.2 percent on the back of cost efficiency gains. In the quarter, a regulatory measure came into effect requiring all prepaid subscribers to register their personal information.
To comply with government regulations, the operator disconnected 83,000 prepaid lines in the month of March. Claro Peru ended March with 10.5 million accesses, 15.8 percent more than a year before. Its wireless subscriber base reached 10 million clients, 14.4 percent more than a year before, with its postpaid subscriber base jumping 52 percent.
On the fixed-line front, it had 483,000 RGUs, which represents a 56.6 percent increase over the prior year as its broadband and PayTV accesses shot up 69.6 percent and 77.5 percent.
