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Ecuadorian mobile operator Alegro to migrate from CDMA to HSPA+

Ecuadorian mobile operator Alegro PCS, controlled by the national state carrier CNT, may migrate from CDMA to HSPA+ to improve and expand its services. According to the local newspaper El Universo, CNT is expected to invest US$ 74 million and the new technology might be provided by Chinese telecoms infrastructure provider Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and  French/American telecoms equipment supplier Alcatel-Lucent (ALU).

Since Alegro was born, in December 2003, the carrier relies on CDMA technology. However, its competitors, such as Claro  (NYSE: AMX) and Movistar Ecuador – controlled by Spain’s Telefónica (TEF) – offer Edge, 2.5G, 3G and 3.5G. Claro leads the mobile market, with 10.82 millions and Movistar has 4.41 millions. On the other hand, Alegro just has 1.9% of market share (around 300,000 customers).

Ecuador had 15.5 millions mobile telephony subscribers at the end of May, compared to 14.0 million year prior.

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ABOUT AUTHOR

Roberta Prescott
Roberta Prescott
Editor, Americasrprescott@rcrwireless.com Roberta Prescott is responsible for Latin America reporting news and analysis, interviewing key stakeholders. Roberta has worked as an IT and telecommunication journalist since March 2005, when she started as a reporter with InformationWeek Brasil magazine and its website IT Web. In July 2006, Prescott was promoted to be the editor-in-chief, and, beyond the magazine and website, was in charge for all ICT products, such as IT events and CIO awards. In mid-2010, she was promoted to the position of executive editor, with responsibility for all the editorial products and content of IT Mídia. Prescott has worked as a journalist since 1998 and has three journalism prizes. In 2009, she won, along with InformationWeek Brasil team, the press prize 11th Prêmio Imprensa Embratel. In 2008, she won the 7th Unisys Journalism Prize and in 2006 was the editor-in-chief when InformationWeek Brasil won the 20th media award Prêmio Veículos de Comunicação. She graduated in Journalism by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, has done specialization in journalism at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain, 2003) and Master in Journalism at IICS – Universidad de Navarra (Brazil, 2010) and MBA – Executive Education at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.