America Movil give puppies in a raffle for Colombian customers
America Movil SAB, the mobile-phone carrier controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim, is giving away 200 puppies in a raffle for Colombian customers, drawing criticism from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
According to Martin Mersereau, Director of the animal-rights group’s emergency response division, unless families who win these puppies spent months and months deliberating as to whether or not could make good homes for these animals, they have no business having them.
According to the website of its Comcel unit, America Movil, the biggest wireless company in Latin America, is registering buyers of LG Electronics Inc. phones for the raffle through Jan. 15. The dogs, provided by breeder Cachorros de San Luis, will be healthy and immunized. They include pugs, beagles, boxers, shih tzus and labradors.
Earlier last year, Mexico City-based America Movil had 28.8 million wireless subscribers in Colombia and Panama, or 13% of its total customer base across Latin America, the U.S. and the Caribbean.
According to Mersereau, Comcel told Norfolk, Virginia-based PETA last month that while it wouldn’t offer such promotions in the future, the company planned to continue with the current puppy raffle. The company is glad that Comcel vowed not to do this in the future, but there are 200 lives at stake right now.
Mexican dark fibre license won by consortium
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: An announcement has been made by the Secretario de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT) regarding a consortium made up of local media giant Grupo Televisa, Mexican cableco Megacable and Spain’s Telefonica has been awarded the license allowing access to two strands of dark fibre owned by state power company Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE).
Bid of MXN884 million (USD69.4 million) was submitted by the trio and it is understood that they plan to spend a combined MXN1.3 billion on upgrading the infrastructure for future use. All the three firms getting the license will be able to transport customer traffic over the fibre strands, while it will also allow them to offer routing services to other operators.
According to Francisco Gil Diaz, executive vice president of Telefonica Mexico, now there will be competition and it’s something that players very much lacked in this country. The regulator rejected mobile operator Iusacell’s application, claiming the cellco had failed to agree to the auction rules.
Telefonica Mexico’s subscriber base up 38% (Mexico)
Telefonica Mexico, has reported it’s wireless subscriber base in Mexico reached 14.1 million at the end of Q2, up 38% from a year earlier.
“This growth was underpinned by a competitive and flexible commercial offering in the prepay segment,” Telefonica said in its quarterly earnings report.
According to Telefonica, the net wireless customer additions of 1.6 million in Mexico in the first half of the year, including 855,630 in the second quarter.
Mexico’s mobile penetration rate has reached 68% by the end of the second quarter, up from 58% a year ago.
Telefonica’s revenue in Mexico rose 34% in the H1 to EUR784 million, while operating income before depreciation and amortization more than trebled to EUR175 million.
