NII Holdings is reportedly selling its Nextel operations in Chile and Argentina. According to the Argentinean newspaper La Nación, two Argentinian businessmen, Matías Garfunkel and Sergio Szpolski, the owners Grupo Veintitres, are close to buying the mobile phone service for about $250 million.
Last year, NII Holdings agreed to sell its Peruvian operations to Entel (Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones S.A.) for approximately $400 million. The move was expected since NII had already announced it would focus on its largest markets in the region: Mexico and Brazil. A public relations representative for NII Holdings told RCR Wireless News that the company cannot comment on market rumors or speculation.
In February 2013, NII Holdings said it would continue to support its operations in Peru, Chile and Argentina, while also exploring strategic options for these markets, such as partnerships, service arrangements and asset sales to maximize the value of those businesses and generate additional liquidity.
Mexican telecom regulations: América Móvil has created a strategic committee to assess its various options to respond to the new Mexican regulatory framework as well as potential opportunities arising from the legislation. The telcom claims it is focused on “continuing with the development of the telecommunications sector and providing services with high quality, state-of-the-art technologies and under best conditions.” The committee’s recommendations will be made available to América Movil’s board of directors and potentially presented at shareholder meetings for discussion.
In March 2014, the Federal Telecommunications Institute determined that América Móvil and its subsidiaries operated as a preponderant economic agent in the telecommunications sector since the companies accounted for 61.8% of the aggregate number of subscribers in the sector as of June 2013.
Tower sales: SBA has entered into a definitive agreement with certain subsidiaries of Brazil’s Oi to acquire 1,641 wireless sites in Brazil for approximately U.S.$527 million at current exchange rates. When the transaction closes, Oi will enter into a long-term lease with SBA with monthly payments for antenna space on each of these sites. The transaction, which is subject to customary conditions, is expected to close by the end of this year. This transaction was exclusively negotiated and is similar to SBA’s acquisition of 2,007 sites from Oi, a deal which closed on March 31, 2014.
More Latin American news:
- Viber announced that the World Cup boosted the use of its mobile messaging service. The company said that during the first ten days of the tournament, Viber saw a 40% increase in the total volume of exchanged messages. During the games, the increase climbed 1,500%.
- On Telecom launched Internet broadband services using LTE in five more cities in the state of São Paulo.
- ZTE won a contract from Wind Telecom to build the first 4G TD-LTE network in the Dominican Republic.
- In the Latin American region, mobile devices account for 15.24% of the total transactions at MercadoLivre, a website dedicated to e-commerce and online auctions.
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