America Movil Partners with Appia for the launch of ‘iApps’ (Latin America)
Wireless service provider America Movil, has announced the launch of its iApps Application Stores powered by Appia, bringing a vast catalog of apps and games to all America Movil subscribers across Latin America. According to company reports, the iApps Application Stores are now available through America Movil’s operating partners Claro, Comcel, and Telcel reaching over 240 million mobile subscribers in 18 countries across Latin America including Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.
Marco Quatorze, Director of Value Added Services, America Movil, has said that with the launch of the Application Stores powered by Appia to all America Movil subscribers, Apps are now available to the majority of Latin American Mobile subscribers. Further, Appia’s carrier-grade solution enabled them to quickly roll out the largest Application Store across Latin America.
Appia’s Application Catalog includes thousands of applications and games for Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, and Java phones. The iApps Application Stores include both paid and free applications such as social media, news, weather and sports apps in Spanish, English and Portuguese. Leading application developers including Rovio and Gameloft are distributing their app through the iApps Application store, along with internationally recognized application developers including Facebook, Electronic Arts, and MocoSpace.
Lukasz Deszczulka, Executive VP Marketing, Tequila Mobile, has said that America Movil’s iApps Application Stores have been a great source of traffic for them. Also, the Latin American apps market is growing rapidly, and Appia and America Movil have made it incredibly easy to reach users and generate downloads.
Jud Bowman, CEO, Appia, has said that Appia is excited to partner with America Movil to bring apps to the hundreds of millions of mobile subscribers in North, Central and South America. As app use continues to grow globally, Latin American is a phenomenal opportunity for application distribution and we expect tremendous growth in app consumption.
Ucell inks bilateral agreement with Smart Mobile and Telecom New Zealand (Uzbekistan)
Uzbekistan-based mobile services provider Ucell has added new roaming partners. Ucell has signed a bilateral agreement with Latelz in Cambodia (Smart Mobile) and Telecom New Zealand.
The company will now allow prepaid users to roam on the Viva network in Kuwait, on Qtel’s network in Qatar and on Telekom Deutschland’s network in Germany.
Moreover, Ucell added Telecel in Bolivia as a GPRS and 3G roaming partner.
Ericsson plans to acquire $1bn additional revenues
Ericsson, world’s largest telecoms gearmaker, expects to acquire over $1 billion in additional revenues over the next two years by executing a swing of managed services contracts from India for large telecom firms in Latin America.
Ericsson’s wholly-owned Indian arm, Ericsson India Global Services, is already managing telecom networks in the US, Europe, Africa and Middle East.
According to Amitabh Ray, Senior Vice-President, Ericsson India Global Services, although its global service centre in Mexico has a time zone advantage, the company is planning to leverage its pool of certified engineering resources besides cost-efficiencies in India to support telecom companies across Latin America.
He added that Ericsson’s global services centre in India will work closely with its counterpart in Mexico to address the huge opportunity that exists in the Latin American telecoms spectrum.
He did not disclose the names of telecom firms whose networks will be managed from India but stated that they could include fixed-line operator Telefonica Brazil, cable TV player CableTica, Costa Rica besides Mexican mobile phone companies Telcel and Telefonica Moviles.
Telcel make changes to voicemail service (Mexico)
The Mexican unit of mobile phone giant America Movil SAB, Telcel has made adjustments to its voice mail service and is in compliance with regulations that require it to advise users before forwarding their calls to voice mail.
According to the federal telecommunications regulator, it has proposed sanctions against Telcel and two other operators for failing to advice users when they will start being billed for calls that go unanswered and are sent to voice mail.
According to Telcel’s statement, it received a notification from the federal consumer protection agency requiring adjustments in the forwarding message, and that it has proceeded to make the changes.
The telecommunications regulator added that it has also proposed fines against the Mexican unit of Spain’s Telefonica SA, and against smaller operator Unefon, over the voice mail service.
Mexico’s Telecom Market expands with the increasing competition
If reports are to be believed, Mexico’s telecom market will expand at a CAGR of 7.9% over the next five years to generate US$34.9 billion in 2015, owing to radio-access migration from 2.5G to 3G platforms, spectrum auction winners, and the entry of a new player increasing competition.
According to Jose Manuel Mercado, Senior Analyst at Pyramid, the need for better coverage, affordable prices and state-of-the-art communications has lead the federal government to promote competition in the mobile segment with much more intensity – two spectrum auctions took place in 2010, and the most important outcome is the entry of new player Televisa-Nextel. In 2011 Televisa-Nextel will start to offer services to the mass market, and Telcel and Telefonica will expand their 3G services thanks to their new capacities. The next step toward more competition will be related to the pay-TV market and its inclusion of Telmex.
Jose explained that, market expects mobile services revenue to account for 67% of the total market by 2015; this will be driven by an increase in the subscriber base of roughly 41 million net adds between 2009 and 2015, increased by intensified competition between Movistar and Telcel, which is helping to bring down the prices of services and to boost mobile data adoption. The pay-TV market is becoming more dynamic as a result of aggressive strategies and the entry of new players. Megacable will be the second MVNO player and with the spectrum acquired by Televisa, the pay-TV segment will lead the technological change.
Comcel launches 3G mobile TV service with Rok
Comcel, the largest Mobile Operator in Colombia and Rok have joined hands to launch the Ideas Web TV a streamed, on-demand mobile TV subscription service. Powered by ‘ROK TV’ video-streaming technology, Ideas Web TV will offer an early package of Mobile TV channels that will include Discovery Movil, Discovery Kids, Nickelodeon, Playboy Lifestyle, ESPN, ESPN-X, Wappo TV, Disney Channel and National Geographic.
Comcel has confirmed that it will be joining Telcel and will able to offer its customers the highest quality streamed mobile TV service available which it will promote as a monthly subscription service valued at approximately US$8.25 per month.
According to Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman and CEO of ROK, the company is delighted to be working with Comcel in Colombia as this symbolizes another major milestone in the global roll-out of the company’s revenue-generating mobile entertainment services.
Mexico’s spectrum auction delayed
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: MVS Comunicaciones and Iusacell appeal to suspend the auction of mobile spectrum in the 1850MHz-1990MHz and 1710MHz-2170MHz bands has been granted by a court of Mexico.
The two operators has cited the bidding rules as unfair and argued that the Secretario de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT) should first renew its licenses in the 2.5GHz band before the process begins.
Telcel, Mexico’s largest operator by subscribers has also voiced its discontent with the bidding rules. According to Daniel Hajj, CEO of America Movil, Telcel’s parent company, although the company is participating in the auction, they are not very happy.
Telcel declared dominant on mobile market by FCC (Mexico)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Federal Competition Commission (FCC) of Mexico has reconfirmed its decision of establishing the market dominance position of Telcel. The decision was ratified after analyzing the arguments presented by Telcel to sustain that it does not apply any anti-competitive practices.
Telcel’s large market share in terms of subscribers and revenue and high levels of profit gained steadily in recent years has been taken into account during the investigations.
Telcel’s capacity to achieve net subscriber additions over its competitors as a result of its high level of coverage and extensive distribution network spread across the country, as well as the existence of significant barriers to the entry of new operators is also added by CFC.
