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British American Tobacco taps T-Systems for $209M cloud contract

British American Tobacco has closed a $209 million deal with Deutsche Telekom's IT subsidiary T-Systems. The seven-year contract focused on cloud computing offerings represents one of the largest cloud deals in T-Systems' history. Over a two-year period, British American Tobacco and T-Systems will transition the...

ARM, Gemalto and Giesecke & Devrient form mobile security JV

Eyeing the growing range of connected devices, ARM, Gemalto and Giesecke & Devrient have created a joint venture focused on delivering a secure and accessible environment for advanced services running on platforms such as tablets, smart-TVs, games consoles and smartphones. All three companies will contribute...

Emerging markets will represent 31% of $3.7 trillion in global IT spending

Emerging regions will generate $1.22 trillion in IT spending in 2012, representing more than 31% of the worldwide total, according to Gartner. The consulting firm has also forecast that worldwide, IT spending will reach a total of $3.7 trillion this year, which is a...

Brazil’s Vivo expands HSPA+ services throughout country

Brazilian carrier Vivo, owned by the Spain's Telefónica, expanded its HSPA+ services to nearly all of Brazil’s states, except for Roraima and Amapá. The business offerings started April 4 under the commercial name "3GPlus." Vivo is Brazil’s largest mobile operator with nearly 30% market...

Gartner VP: CIOs have to ‘learn to lose control a little’ over BYOD

When it comes to bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies, chief information officers (CIOs) tend to become resistant, mostly because of management and security issues. BYOD is a trend which sooner or later will catch up with many companies, so IT managers must become more open to...

IBM to buy 20% of Brazilian EBX’s SIX Automation; run EBX Group’s IT operations

The Brazilian holding company EBX Group,  owned by Brazil’s richest man Eike Batista, and IBM (NYSE: IBM) have reached an agreement under which IBM will acquire a 20% stake in SIX Automação SA, an EBX Group subsidiary focused on industrial automation. IBM will also...

Viettel to launch mobile operations in Peru next year

Vietnamese mobile network operator Viettel Group announced plans to launch operations in Peru in 2013. Viettel plans to invest about $400 million in the country over the next 10 years. Viettel currently has operations in Cambodia, Laos, Haiti and Mozambique. Dubbed Viettel Peru, the company...

Brazil announces tax breaks to boost economy; positive impacts for ICT sector

The Brazilian government does not want the economic crisis expand in the country. On April 3, President Dilma Rousseff announced new tax cuts and other stimulus measures that will benefit 15 industry segments. The new package, which complements the one previously announced, is intended...

TIM partners with Amdocs for residential broadband service

TIM Brasil, the second largest mobile service provider in Brazil, has partnered with Amdocs (DOX) to help with consulting, integration and implementation services for its new TIM Fiber residential broadband service. This new project represents an expansion of Amdocs' previous work with the telecom operator. The two...

Cisco to invest $546.6M in Brazil, generate 800 jobs

Brazil represents a key global priority and growth opportunity for Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO). In recent years, the country’s Cisco subsidiary has been growing consistently, more than 20% each fiscal year. This could be enough to justify the company's new investments of more than $546.6...

Paraguay’s Conatel calls for second consultation for 1700-2100 MHz auction

The Paraguayan National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) has called for a second public consultation for the tendering of 1700-2100 MHz spectrum bands. The government has not yet set the date for the auction. Proposals need to be completed by April 13. Conatel will take bids on the...

Telefonica to merge Movistar, Colombia Telecomunicaciones

Spain's Telefónica(NYSE: TEF) said Monday it has reached an agreement with Colombia's government to merge fixed-line operator Colombia Telecomunicaciones (Coltel) with mobile operator Telefonica Moviles Colombia. Telefónica owns 52% of Coltel, with the Colombian government controlling the remaining 48%. Under the agreement, the Colombia government...

Digicel Group buys Haitian mobile operator Voilà

Digicel Group announced it has acquired Haitian mobile operator Voilà from U.S.-based Trilogy International Partners for an undisclosed sum. The transaction closed last Friday. At least for the near term Voilà will continue to operate as a separate company from Digicel. Follow RCR Wireless News...

Brazil’s Oi’s profit fell 80% in Q4 as restructuring expenses increased

Brazilian carrier Oi has reported a drop of 80% in its 2011 fourth-quarter profit. According to its financial report, the telecom operator’s net income was $77.06 million (R$ 140.7 million), a sharp drop from the $386.04 million (R$ 704.8 million) posted during the same period...

Oracle buys ClearTrial to bolster Health Sciences suite

Oracle has entered into an agreement to acquire ClearTrial, which develops cloud-based clinical trial operations applications. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2012. The two companies did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. ClearTrial, a private company founded in...

Virgin Mobile secures U.S. $26.5 million to launch MVNO in Chile

Virgin Mobile Latin America (VMLA) has secured U.S. $26.5 million in new equity funding to develop its regional business and launch mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) services in Chile. The new funding consists of equity from existing shareholders, including the Virgin Group and ePlanet Capital,...

Claro Brazil shortens its sales cycle

América Móvil’s Claro Brazil has reduced the time it takes to add a new customer into the telecom operators’ base from 8-10 days to 2-3 days. This is a result of a change in business process management, through the implementation of a combination of...

Eyeing BYOD potential market, IBM bets on endpoint management for mobile devices

Mobility is a great enterprise tool for speeding up the decision-making process. Whether employees bring their own devices to the company (BYOD) or firms deliver them to their workforce, the ever-growing number of smartphone options and the recent explosion of tablet computers oblige IT...

Changing telecom industry’s new challenges: monetization, security and becoming “smart pipe”

What the telecom industry has not changed in the past ten years, it is changing now – and in a drastic way. The advent of new technologies, such as mobile broadband, voice over IP (VoIP) and messaging, among others, have contributed to the shift....

TIM Brazil to install 10,000 Wi-Fi hot spots in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro

While telecom operators in mature markets have used Wi-Fi hot spots to offload 3G data traffic, in Brazil carriers have just started to deploy them. During the TM Forum Latin America Summit held on March 27-28 in São Paulo, TIM Brazil’s director of innovation, Maurício Cascão, said...

Latin America’s telecom organization OITA seeks collaboration among members

“The members of OITA will work to find synergies in several telecom areas which we can take advantage of as a team, such as making joint purchases,” Marcelo Erlich, Antel’s ICT general manager, told RCR Wireless News during TM Forum's Latin America Summit. The Uruguayan...

Brazil’s TIM partners with Ativas, Dualtec to launch cloud service aiming to increase data revenues

“Cloud computing is a fantastic way to sell more data.” By stressing this definition, the director of innovation at TIM Brazil, Maurício Cascão, defined the telecom operator’s strategy in launching cloud computing services offers in the country. Cascão said, during the TM Forum Latin...

End of monopoly pushes Cost Rica’s mobile penetration to 101.31%

It has been a few years since the end of the telecom sector monopoly in Costa Rica. The Superintendent of Telecommunications Sutel says ending the monopoly has led to great advances for the country's mobile industry. The mobile telephony penetration rate jumped from 42.38%...

Haiti to get a 124 miles of undersea cable with Digicel funding of $16 M

Haiti is set to receive a major boost with the delivery of US $16 million worth of undersea cable (124.28 miles) which will link the nation to 21 other countries in the Pan Caribbean region, as well as with the United States and the...