After launching LTE services in the cities of Recife, Campos do Jordão (SP), Paraty and Buzios (RJ), Claro, the Brazilian mobile unit of América Móvil, announced the addition of five more cities are now covered by its LTE service. By including the cities of Brasília, Rio de Janeiro, Fortaleza, Belo Horizonte and Salvador, Claro has met the requirement set by the regulatory agency Anatel to provide LTE coverage for all of the FIFA Confederations Cup host cities by April 2013. The telecom operator commercially branded its service 4GMax.
During the launch event, Anatel and government officials forecasted that about 4 million LTE-ready devices will be sold across the country by the end of this year. In March, Brazil reached 264.05 million mobile accesses, of which 14,702 (or 0.01%) are LTE-ready. The majority is still GSM (71.39%) and prepaid (80.05%). Telefónica’s Vivo leads with 28.78% followed by TIM (26.98%), Claro (25.11%) and Oi (18.74%).
Vivo and Oi said they will release LTE plans later this month. TIM has not yet indicated when it will provide more details about its LTE strategy. Anatel granted prior consent for an infrastructure sharing agreement between Oi and TIM for the LTE service deployment in FIFA Confederations Cup and World Cup host cities. The operators will use the blocks of 2.5 GHz band auctioned last year.
Wi-Fi hotspots are increasing in Brazil, both to help carriers to offload their 3G traffic and meet customer demand for Wi-Fi network Internet access. Linktel plans to have a total of 3,000 Wi-Fi hotspots by the time of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, increasing this number to 10,000 by 2016 when Rio de Janeiro will host the Olympics Games. RCR Wireless News talked with Linktel’s president, Jonas Trunk, in a video interview:
More from the Latin American market:
- Mexico’s senate approved a new telecom bill, which aims to boost competition. In March, Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, announced a range of reforms for the telecommunications sector designed to promote increased competition. The country’s telecom sector is currently dominated by América Móvil, the leader in both mobile and land lines, and Grupo Televisa.
- The Aricent Group has partnered with Brazilian CPqD, an information and communications technology research and development institution, to start field trials of its LTE eNodeB in the 450 MHz band. Brazil’s regulatory rules require that rural areas up to 30 km from all Brazilian municipality headquarters have LTE coverage in the 450 MHz band with voice and data services by December 31, 2015.
- Telefónica held a press conference in São Paulo to unveil a new service that allows customers to connect up to five devices using the same shared plan.
- After announcing a series of investments throughout Latin America, including launching metropolitan networks in Buenos Aires and Bogota, the company Level 3 expects to post “double-digit” growth for its Latin American business, according to Level 3 vice president of sales for Brazil, Marcos Malfatti, during a meeting with RCR Wireless News. Last year, Latin America accounted for U.S.$701 million of the company’s total revenue of U.S.$6.3 billion.
- Costa Rican telecom regulator Sutel announced that the state-owned operator Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) must comply with the country’s number portability rules. ICE wanted to delay implementation of number portability.
- D-Link announced it is investing U.S.$15 million (R$30 million) in Brazil. The investment is focused on reinforcing its local business and includes a new warehouse, improving infrastructure and storage capacity. D-Link forecasted it will increase its Brazilian revenues by 25% this year. The company also noted that it had a positive first quarter in the country, pushed by retail, telecom industries, as well as small and medium business.
- Seaborn Networks has selected Equinix for its first São Paulo (Brazil) gateway to New York City. Equinix’s facility in São Paulo (SP2) provides data center services to customers in Latin America and offers critical overseas connectivity to the financial and commercial center of the U.S. Seabras-1 gateways will operate out of Telx’s soon to be completed flagship facility, NJR3.
Be sure not to miss what’s happening in Latin America’s wireless markets. Check out RCR Wireless News wrap ups.
