SAO PAULO – No matter who becomes Brazil’s next president after the Oct. 26 runoff election, the agenda to universalize Internet broadband must move forward, according to Paulo Bernardo, Brazil's minister of communications. Bernardo used his speech before a full audience at the opening session of Futurecom in...
Mexico's telecommunications regulator, IFT, has imposed a $3.69 million fine on fixed-line operator Telmex for monopolistic practices in long-distance services. IFT said Telmex committed a serious infraction by ignoring competitor Axtel's requests to interconnect with its network. The carrier also did not provide information about...
As opposed to the country's 2.5 GHz spectrum auction, Brazil’s 700 MHz auction had almost no premium over the set minimum prices and the government raised much less than it expected. Also, the proceedings resulted in no new entrants into the country's hotly contested...
In the wake of Telefónica’s acquisition of GVT in Brazil, mobile operator Oi said it won't bid in the country's upcoming 700 MHz frequency band auction. Brazilian carriers had until Sept. 23 to present their proposals for the auction, which is set to begin Sept. 30. The 700 MHz...
A flurry of potential acquisitions in Brazil has resulted in two competing operators, Oi and TIM Brasil, each considering bids to buy the other.
First, there is the ongoing battle for Vivendi's Brazilian unit, GVT. Telefónica raised its offer for GVT to U.S.$9.83 billion in cash...
Brazil’s government has approved a tax break program that exempts companies from several federal taxes related to investment in telecommunications networks. A total of 1,400 projects are expected to fall under the tax relief program, totaling almost U.S.$2.67 billion (R$6 billion) in tax exemptions. The...
UPDATED: The future of Brazil's telecom market has become complicated by several potential, competing acquisition offers. Nearly everyone expects some kind of market consolidation, but how it will happen is not yet clear. Over the past few weeks, French company Vivendi has fielded dueling bids from Spain's Telefónica...
NII Holdings has remained in the headlines in Latin America ever since it announced a likely bankruptcy last week. On August 15, the company, which operates under the Nextel brand in Latin America, said it has elected not to pay approximately $118.8 million in interest due on senior notes. A...
NII Holdings, which operates in Latin America under the Nextel brand, announced it will likely file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection because it cannot fulfill its financial obligations. Following the announcement, NII Holdings' shares plummeted. According to the filing, the mobile phone carrier has until Aug. 15 to...
The greater the number of competitors, the better for the user, said Brazil's minister of communications, Paulo Bernardo, to members of the press this week. Those comments came on the heels of Telefónica's bid to buy Vivendi's Brazilian unit GVT. Telefónica hopes to combine its Vivo operations, which...
In a new twist to the changing Mexican telecom market, Telefónica is reportedly in talks to acquire Grupo Iusacell, a deal that could be worth up to $4 billion, according to local newspaper El Confidencial. Rumors have been circulating since early June that the two were considering a merger. In a regulatory...
Now that the FIFA World Cup has ended, carriers and observers are evaluating how the mobile networks performed during the tournament. While the National Union of Fixed and Mobile Telecom Companies of Brazil (SindiTelebrasil) claimed that 2G, 3G and LTE coverage performed beyond expectations and that it received a low...
Mexico's senate is scheduled to hold a special session to debate additional laws to the country's new telecommunications regulations designed to curb the market dominance of companies owned by billionaire Carlos Slim. The session is set to begin July 4.
In a related move, the country’s telecom regulator, the Instituto Federal...
NII Holdings is reportedly selling its Nextel operations in Chile and Argentina. According to the Argentinean newspaper La Nación, two Argentinian businessmen, MatÃas 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...
Before the FIFA World Cup began, Brazilian telecom union SindiTelebrasil said that the operators' networks were ready to handle the increased data and voice traffic, and during the first week of the tournament the wireless performance was closely watched.
During the first games in each of the 12 arenas that...
The FIFA World Cup begins today in Brazil, starting with a match between the host country and Croatia in São Paulo at the Arena Corinthians. Around 600,000 foreign tourists are expected to arrive in Brazil for the World Cup, and according to the telecom...
Chile's secretary of telecommunications (Subtel) ordered telecom operators to end promotions that offer free access to social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, starting June 1. According to Subtel, the promotions violate the country's Neutrality Act.
The Neutrality Act states that carriers can manage their own...
The use of the AWS spectrum band (1700/2100 MHz) for LTE mobile services in Latin America is expected to have a huge positive economic impact, according to a recently released study by GSMA. The report also found that the spectrum band is key to extending existing "4G" deployments,...
Brazil's mobile market ended April with almost 2.5 million LTE connections. Although the total LTE base is still relatively small (less than 1% penetration), LTE use has been increasing, with record growth last month. Led by Claro, which added 177,000 new LTE connections in April,...
Argentina is set to conduct spectrum auctions this year designed to free up frequencies for both 3G and 4G services.
According to the minister of economy, Axel Kicillof, and the communications secretary, Norberto Berner, the 1.7/2.1 GHz (advanced wireless services) band auction will focus on LTE services while the...
Welcome to this week’s edition of cell tower industry news, created by Jarad Matula and brought to you by Towercrews.net. Tower companies and carriers are certainly getting their day in court lately. Last week it was a federal court debating police use of cell tower...
