U.S.-based BellSouth has grandiose plans for its future in Latin America. Despite its recent moves in Europe with wireless operator E-Plus, BellSouth remains committed to Latin America as its primary international investment target.
Currently a wireless service provider or licensee in 10 countries in Central and South America, BellSouth aims to become a full-service operator in the region-offering Internet access, local service and long distance, in addition to wireless.
Toward that end, the company has launched a new branding campaign in the region to publicize the BellSouth name, has changed several of its operators’ names to simply “BellSouth,” and has initiated a co-branding strategy with two of its operators to preserve existing strong brand names.
“What we wanted to do with the branding strategy is this: We wanted to make sure that customers knew that they were buying services from a company that has international reach,” said Kevin Doyle, spokesman for BellSouth.
Its operators in Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru now market their cellular services under the BellSouth name. The company’s new PCS licensee in Guatemala will begin services in mid-2000 also under the BellSouth name.
Elsewhere in the region, BellSouth is co-branding with local names in Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela. Its Movicom cellular/PCS operation in Argentina and its cellular operation in Uruguay now operate under the Movicom BellSouth name. And its Telcel cellular operation in Venezuela is scheduled to change to Telcel BellSouth sometime during this quarter.
BellSouth found it important to preserve the local brand name in certain circumstances. For example, the Movicom brand name is so strong in Argentina, said Doyle, that it is used as a generic name for cellular service. “People will say, `Call me on your Movicom.’ So we’ve linked this name with BellSouth, which [represents] international opportunities.”
BellSouth also owns two cellular licenses in Brazil, but does not have any immediate plans to use the BellSouth brand there. The two services are sold under the name BCP.
“Back over two years ago, when we were first planning service, the situation there was such that we and our (local) partners knew there was a great deal of sensitivity in the market about the privatization of Telebras (the formerly government-owned operator) and new competition,” said Doyle. “We made a decision: Go with a brand that was catchy …, but didn’t have `made outside Brazil’ stamped all over it.”
The company has begun its push toward becoming a full-service telecom company by launching Internet access services. BellSouth has provided Internet access in Venezuela for more than 18 months and recently began providing Internet access in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.
“Our goal by the end of [2000] is to roll out Internet access services in each of the 10 markets,” said Doyle.
The next push is for local and long-distance services. Doyle said the operator already is providing long distance in Argentina, Chile and Venezuela through a combination of long-distance resale and facilities-based services.
Doyle said BellSouth also has a long-distance license in Peru, but has not resolved interconnection issues with Telefonica de Peru, and thus is not yet marketing the service there.
BellSouth aims to become its own international carrier of traffic and is currently assembling international gateways in Santiago, Chile; Piscataway (New Jersey), United States; and London.
On the local side, BellSouth likely initially will build off its wireless platform to provide fixed services, first reaching customers with high-volume traffic via fiber or local multipoint distribution services (LMDS).
BellSouth currently is testing LMDS technology in Buenos Aires, but doesn’t have any LMDS spectrum in Latin America. When the time comes to deploy such a service, Doyle said BellSouth could approach it different ways: It could bid for spectrum where available or perhaps use spectrum owned by partner companies. He wouldn’t speculate on whether BellSouth would acquire other companies that possessed necessary spectrum.
The alternative, Doyle said, would be to install fiber for that “last mile” or lease facilities from a local provider.
“What I’ve painted for you is the big picture,” said Doyle. “What will happen is as local licensing permits, we’ll take steps into local and long distance …
“It’s an incremental plan … Over the next several years, we’ll push just as aggressively as we can.”
