Telefonica may close down CDMA operations in Latin America (Spain)
Telefonica Spain is planning to shut down its CDMA operations in Latin American in the medium term said Telef³nica general director for Latin America, Jos© Mara lvarez Pallete. “Probably by year 2010, if things keep going in the same direction in terms of commercial activity in GSM, we’ll be starting thinking of switching off the CDMA network,” the executive said.
Telefonica’s majority CDMA market prevails in Brazil and Venenzuela.
“In terms of OpEx, as most of our new adds are coming in GSM, or roughly 90% in the case of Brazil, the level of subsidies in terms of CDMA handsets has been significantly reduced, so the impact on the margin is already there and it’s mostly the same case in Venezuela,” the executive added.
Virgin Mobile announces prepaid international tariffs (USA)
Virgin Mobile USA announces new prepaid international tariffs to Latin America, Asia, and other markets across the globe.
The new tariffs allows the Virgin Mobile USA subscribers to make calls Brazil and parts of Mexico, Venezuela, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan for only 2cents/minute. Calls to Argentina, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Bangladesh, India, South Korea and Thailand will cost 5cents/minute.
The Virgin also offers international SMS tariffs priced at 2cents to send and 10 cents to receive a message in more than 170 countries worldwide.
Venezuela telecom revenues leap 28.83% in Q2
Second quarter results shows growth in Venezuela income which is generated by telecommunications services. The income grew by 28.83 percent reaching USD 2.6 billion. According to a report, Investments during the period amounted to USD 236.9 million. At the end of June, there were 93 mobile phone lines per 100 inhabitants.
Statistics shows that
- No. of mobile subscribers reaches 25.87 million
- Mobile traffic moves up by 27.91 percent
- SMS increases by 11.47 billion
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Movistar Venezuela to earn highest ARPU for the period of 2008-2010 (Venezuela)
Venezuela’s, mobile market, is far more dynamic than the fixed-line market, so much so that mobile phones outnumber fixed lines in service by around 4.7 to one. Mobile penetration is among the highest in Latin America. Venezuela is the regional leader in terms of SMS traffic, the number of text messages surpassing the number of minutes an average Venezuelan talks on a mobile phone. Venezuela is the only country in Latin America where CDMA is still the leading technology, but the two leading mobile operators, Movilnet and Movistar, are finally turning to GSM.
Notable highlights of the 3Q08 Venezuela Mobile Forecast include:
- The number of subscribers in Venezuela will increase from 28 million in 2008 to a forecasted 31.6 million in 2010.
- The wireless penetration level in the country will increase from 100.1% to 108% over this period.
- It is forecasted that Movilnet and Movistar Venezuela will be losing market share to Telvenco. Movilnet is expected to see its market share decline from its projected 40% in 2008 to 39.1% in 2010 while Movistar Venezuela will see a similar drop in market share from 38.3% in 2008 to 38.8% in 2010. On the other hand, Telvenco which will see its market share increase from 21.8% to 22.5% over this period.
- Movistar Venezuela will continue to receive the highest ARPU in the country. However, its monthly ARPU will still decline from US$ 23.34 in 2008 to US$ 19.15 in 2010. Overall, the average ARPU in the country will fall from US$ 18.52 to US$ 15 over this period.
Latin America mobile subscribers reaches the mark of 400 mln
According to new figures from the industry analyst, the number of mobile connections in Latin America exceeded 400 million in the first half of this year. Mobile penetration rate is 72%. Also operators are now turning to data services boost revenues. It is also forecasted that mobile connections in the Americas will reach 550 million by 2010, while penetration at the same date will stand at 93%. Top five penetration markets, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela have 76% of the region’s mobile subscribers, or 312 million connections.
Analyst also made reference to Spain’s Telefonica, the second-largest telecoms group in Latin America after America Movil, which in June announced plans to create a mobile advertising alliance across its operations in Europe and Latin America. Statistics reveals that Telefonica had just under 104.5 million mobile customers in Latin America at the end of the first quarter, or 70 million excluding Vivo, in which it holds a 50% stake only. The Spanish telco is still dwarfed by Carlos Slim’s America Movil, which claimed 146.3 million at the same date. Telecom Italia comes in a distant third with 48.4 million, followed by Millicom International Group with 16.2 million and Telecom Argentina with 12.6 million.
Mobile Handset factories to be established in Venezuela
The Government and the companies ZTE and Huawei are in collaboration to set up two new factories that will make mobile handsets in Venezuela. It is expected that the factories will be ready between the end of 2009 and 2010. First factory will be in the state of Falcon while the second will be at the headquarters of Cantv and could later be moved to Paraguana or even to Cuba. In dveloping the Mobile telephony technologies, countries like China, Japan, Morocco and Sweden will be helping Venezuela.
Digitel aims 100% GSM coverage (Venezuela)
Digitel, Venezuela, has reported that it has rolled out a total of 80 new GSM base stations in the first six months of this year, with deployments in every state in the country.
The cellco says it covers at least 85% of all communities nationwide, giving an overall population coverage of over 90%, and it is aiming to reach as near to 100% coverage as possible by the end of the year. According to a database, in full-year 2007, Digitel added a total of 260 new GSM/GPRS/EDGE base stations to reach new areas and improve the quality of voice and data transmission in existing coverage zones.
Helio Merger Talks Confirmed
Mobile service reseller Virgin Mobile USA on Wednesday confirmed reports that it is in talks with South Korea’s SK Telecom about a strategic deal involving Helio, SK’s high-end U.S. mobile service reseller.
The parties are seeking a deal that could alter the fortunes of both Virgin Mobile and Helio, two firms that have faced tough times financially in the disappointing mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, business.
Confirmation of the talks between SK Telecom and Virgin Mobile about a possible merger of the two MVNOs sent Virgin Mobile’s stock soaring more than 20 percent.
Both Helio and Virgin are jointly owned by SK Telecom and EarthLink. Virgin Mobile, which resells services from Sprint Nextel, went public in May 2007.
Virgin Mobile targets pre-paid phone service customers with relatively inexpensive service plans, while Helio aims at the youth market with more expensive services and high-end phones.
Helio and Virgin Mobile make a very bad match,†said Alex Besen, president of The Besen Group. Certainly a merger does not make sense either financially or operationally for either company, but particularly so for Virgin.â€
The main goal of a merger of the two firms, he said, would involve the migration of many of Virgin’s five million customers to post-paid plans and would offer them enhanced services marketed by Helio.
Kajeet is a Bethesda, Maryland, MVNO, which began reselling Sprint mobile services in March 2007 aimed at “tweens,” young people between 12 and 14 years old.
Mr. Besen believes that Virgin, which has had problems adding new subscribers, should target attractive, rapidly growing cultural niches in the U.S. market such as Hispanics.
He said that Virgin, which woos Hispanics, should have at least investigated the purchase of Movida Communications, a Kansas City, Missouri-based MVNO which targets the U.S. Hispanic market.
Movida, which was backed by Sprint a Venezuelan conglomerate and a group of former Sprint executives, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March.
Cozac Wireless, a subsidiary of APC Wireless of Rockville, Maryland, bought Movida for $2.8 million in April.
Virgin will not get the benefits of scale with Helio that it will get from Kajeet, Movida or some of the other players targeting cost-conscious consumers,†Mr. Besen said.
Topics: Earthlink, Virgin Mobile, Sk Telecom, MVNO, Sprint Nextel, Movida, Cassimir Medford, Alex Besen, Kajeet, Cozac Wireless.
Movilnet GSM network 600 BTS-strong (Venezuela)
Venezuelan state-owned mobile operator Movilnet has now installed 600 GSM base stations across the country, the company said in a statement. Movilnet president Jacqueline Faria said that the company will launch commercial GSM-based services once the quality of service on the new network and the level of staff expertise matches the levels of its existing CDMA services. Faria added that staff are currently testing 300 post-paid and pre-paid GSM handsets.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Oi pays €2.2b to control Brasil Telecom (Brazil)
Brazil’s Oi telecommunications company announced will pay 5.9 billion reals (US$3.5 billion, €2.2 billion) for control of the nation’s No. 3 fixed line carrier in a deal supported by the government to spur competition, an Associated Press report said.
The deal will create a huge fixed line operator spanning most of Latin America’s most populous country, and will give the combined company about 17% of Brazil’s fast-growing cell phone market, the report said.
Controlling shareholders of Oi, whose official name is Tele Norte Leste Participacoes, announced the long-awaited deal in a filing submitted to Brazilian securities regulators.
It must still be approved by regulators, but Brazilian government officials have repeatedly stated they support the combination because it will increase competition for the two other big national players: Spain’s Telefonica and Mexico’s America Movil, the latter owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.
Oi is controlled by a group of Brazilian investment funds, and Brasil Telecom is controlled by Brazilian investment funds and Citigroup.
The Associated Press report also quoted Communications Minister Helio Costa as saying that the combined company would be a dominant player in the fast-growing Brazilian market while also operating in nations like Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.
