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Brazil tops 250M mobile subscribers, 3G connections grew 10%

Brazil's telecom regulator Anatel reported that the country has surpassed 250 million mobile subscribers in March, reaching a penetrations rate of 128%. Of the country’s 250.8 million active mobile lines, 52 million are 3G connections, which was a 10.11% increase compared with the previous...

Oi tests LTE in five cities

RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazilian carrier Oi has conducted LTE trials in five cities located in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Oi’s technology consultant Alberto Boaventura said the trials were done in the 2.6 GHz and 1.8 GHz bands. “The frequency bands ...

UNE EPM to start LTE services in Bogotá, Medellín

RIO DE JANEIRO – Colombia’s public telecom operator UNE EPM will start providing LTE services first in Bogota and Medellín, and then expand to other big cities. Although Dorian Guillermo Correa, LTE networks implantation leader at UNE EPM, could not provide any commercial launch details,...

Entel conducts LTE trials in 3.5 GHz band

RIO DE JANEIRO – Chilean operator Entel PCS is using its 100 megahertz of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band to conduct trials of LTE services. The primary focus is on small and medium enterprises with the aim of complementing Internet broadband services provided...

Vivo: Expensive devices, infrastructure are major LTE launch concerns

RIO DE JANEIRO – Telecom infrastructure, affordable devices, quality of service (QoS) and coverage are the main issues hindering LTE deployment in Brazil, according to Vivo’s planning and technology director Atila Branco. “Moving to LTE is natural, but there are great challenges to face....

User experience, agnostic technology to drive LTE rollout

RIO DE JANEIRO – The next evolution of telecommunications so-called fourth generation will enhance user experience by improving Internet capacity. “It brings the same experience to the mobile environment as the fixed world,” said Oi’s technology consultant Alberto Boaventura. “It is all about lifestyle and possibilities....

Venezuela’s Movilmax to migrate from WiMAX to LTE

RIO DE JANEIRO – Back in September 2007, Venezuelan pay-tv company Movilmax started to provide WiMAX access to people in Caracas, the country’s capital. After having attracted 10,000 subscribers to the service, the company plans to migrate the network to LTE technology and expand...

Reality Check: LTE self-organizing networks and the RF optimization engineer

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace. In the current, fast-developing ICT industry, mobile networks are evolving in heterogeneous and complex ways. It's also true that this...

Reality Check: Managed services for OSS – what Latin American service providers need to know

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace. Spurred by the need to modernize and even transform their internal systems to meet growing demand for voice and data...

Nextel’s 3G plans could limit competitive advantage across Latin America

Nextel Communications, owned by U.S.-based holding company NII Holdings, could lose its competitive advantage across Latin America due to delays of its 3G network deployment. Financial analysts have noted that the carrier's 3G plans could result in the carrier becoming lost in a sea...

Technology individualization complicates corporate IT environment

IT consumerization and the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend are changing companies and as consequence, their IT departments. If a couple of years ago, a company's chief information officer (CIO) was “the man” who decided all, current employees – and many high-level executives – are now...

Brazil’s Anatel releases 2.5 GHz, 450 MHz auction rules

On April 12, the Brazilian National Telecom Agency Anatel approved bidding documents for the frequency bands 2.5 GHz (to be destined for fourth generation mobile telephony and LTE) and 450 MHz (to be dedicated for improving coverage in rural areas). Anatel said the auction...

Telefonica/Vivo re-brand is more about marketing than background integration

After 18 months working on the Vivo integration, Telefonica announced that starting April 15 all Brazilian products, including mobile, fixed, pay-TV and broadband services for consumers and enterprise segments, will be re-branded under the Vivo name (which means "Alive" in English). Currently, Brazil is Telefonica's biggest...

Level 3 to launch CDN in Latin America forecasting $80M in five years

With high expectations, Level 3 plans to launch its content delivery network (CDN) solution in the Latin American market during second quarter this year. The global provider of IP-based communication services to business, content, government and wholesale customers forecasts that CDN revenues will reach...

Brazilian telecom providers invested $11.81 billion in 2011

Brazilian telecom services providers, including mobile, fixed, broadband and pay-TV, invested a total of U.S.$11.81 billion (R$21.7 billion) during 2011, according to the Brazilian Association of Telecommunications (Telebrasil). The amount includes network expansion, coverage increases and service quality improvements, among other investments. Follow RCR Wireless News...

Despite skepticism, Pyramid predicts 18 million LTE users in Brazil by end of 2015

The LTE implementation in Brazil has been at the heart of several telecom market discussions, since Brazilian telecom agency Anatel might put the 450 MHz and 2.5 GHz frequency spectrum bands out to bid in June – eyeing LTE deployment in the country. The consulting...

Analyst Angle: Reviewing Latin America’s MVNOs scenario

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry.  More than ten years ago I authored the report “MVNO Opportunities in Latin America,” which recognized that...

Virgin Mobile launches MVNO operations in Chile

After securing a U.S. $26.5 million in new equity funding to develop its regional business, Virgin Mobile Latin America (VMLA) launched its operations as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in Chile yesterday (April 10) . The founder of Virgin Group, Richard Branson, went to Santiago, the country's capital,...

HP announces public and converged cloud services

HP (NYSE: HPQ) knew it had to move toward offering public cloud computing if the company wanted to compete with major public cloud players such as Amazon and Google. In addition, HP recognized that it should build an integrated strategy to deliver its solutions in...

Eyeing mobile improvements, SAP to acquire Syclo

Mobile is a key pillar for the German enterprise software giant SAP's future growth. SAP is relying on mobile platforms to reach its global strategy of 1 billion users for its solutions by 2015. Following this move, SAP announced on April 10 that it...

300,000 Colombians kept numbers when switching telecom operators

Colombia’s government has unveiled its telephone number portability results. During the first three months of this year, 167,914 mobile users  kept their original phone numbers when they switched to a new telephone operator. From August 2011 to March 2012, a total of approximately 300,000 lines...

TIM calls Brazil’s 4G auction premature, cites risks

A couple of days before the Brazilian national telecom agency Anatel’s intended announcement of the final auction framework of the radio frequency in the 450 MHz, 2.5 GHz bands, mobile carrier TIM released a statement warning of risks in what the telecom operator calls...

Colombia extends comment deadline for 4G services draft resolution

Colombia’s Ministry of Information Technology and Communications (Mintic) extended the deadline for comments on the draft resolution for the auction of spectrum in the 1.7/2.1 GHz, 2.5 GHz and 1.9 GHz bands. The tender will enable 4G services in the country. Now, comments can be...

Gartner: CIOs must address nexus of mobile, social, cloud and information

Mobile, cloud, social and information are the four pillars of what Gartner calls a "nexus force." These topics will drive business in coming years, and both chief executives officers (CEOs) and chief information officers (CIOs) need to develop strategies focusing on them. To continue...