RIO DE JANEIRO — Although there are some concerns regarding TIM’s future in Brazil, following negotiations between Telefónica and TIM's parent company Telecom Italia, TIM president Rodrigo Abreu outlined some of the carrier's goals at the Futurecom event this week. Abreu also highlighted the need for the...
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s Oi, which recently merged with Portugal Telecom, announced it will have 500,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in Brazil by the end of this year. Speaking at the Futurecom event, Zeinal Bava, president of Oi and PT, said that the carrier has 319,000...
RIO DE JANEIRO — Alcatel-Lucent is betting on the growth of small cells across the Caribbean and Latin American region. In a meeting with members of the press at the Futurecom event, Osvaldo Di Campli, president of Alcatel-Lucent's CALA unit, announced that the vendor has secured...
RIO DE JANEIRO—Expanding LTE services is among Telefónica Vivo's goals for the next year. During a lecture at the Futurecom event, Antonio Carlos Valente, president of Telefónica Vivo, said the carrier plans to provide LTE services in 72 cities in Brazil by the end...
RIO DE JANEIRO — The first m-payment product following a joint venture between Claro Brazil and Bradesco, one of the largest banks in Latin America, debuted at the Futurecom event this week. The joint venture named MPO (Mobile Payment Operator) was first announced last November.
The new product, called...
RIO DE JANEIRO — Telefónica Vivo presented the first range of smartphones with the Firefox operating system in Brazil during the Futurecom event this week. Vivo is currently the only telecom operator in the country to sell LG and Alcatel devices.
The release follows Firefox...
RIO DE JANEIRO—Brazil's 700 MHz auction is expected to take place during the first half of next year with the goal of providing enough spectrum bands for LTE expansion in the country, according to João Rezende, president of Brazil's telecom regulatory agency, Anatel, and Genildo...
Brasil has the most expensive cell phone rates on the planet, according to a study released by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). According to the organization, a one-minute call in Brazil costs about U.S.$0.71 to $0.74, three times more than a similar call in the U.S....
Telefónica Brazil is starting its first trial to virtualize customer premises equipment (CPE). The telecom operator is partnering with NEC Corporation for the trial. The CPE solution is expected to simplify the home equipment installation process, and in the process, Telefónica’s broadband network access and...
When Spain-based Telefónica announced plans to bolster its stake in the Telco holding company, which controls about 22% of Telecom Italia, it started a huge discussion in Brazil and Argentina's telecom markets about what would happen to TIM in Brazil and Telecom Argentina, which are both...
Brazilian telecom operator Vivo announced plans to expand its fiber optic network across state capitals of Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Brasília, Salvador and Porto Alegre. The carrier, which is controlled by Spanish group Telefónica, said the initiative is part of its plans to...
With 250 million active users in the region (about 21% of total users), Facebook is looking at Latin America as a strategic area for the company. For example, over the next year, Facebook will open its fifth office serving Latin America. Located in Colombia,...
Latin American telecom operators have seen a slowdown in the growth of messaging services, but they haven't been cannibalized yet by over-the-top players, as has happened in Europe. A recent Acision Monitor of Mobile Value Added Services report showed that total mobile service revenue...
Telefónica’s Movistar and América Móvil’s Claro have been ordered to give their mobile infrastructure back to the Colombian state when their concessions end in 2014. Colombia's constitutional court ruled that the two operators are obliged by law to give the entire infrastructure back. According to...
Cisco has opened a center of innovation in Rio de Janeiro. The center will integrate Cisco’s portfolio with technology from local players to create solutions that meet the needs of the Brazilian market. During the ceremony, Robert Lloyd, Cisco’s president for development and sales,...
With increased competition in the telecommunications market, Latin American carriers should be worried about improving customer experience. According to James M. Artimez, Accedian Networks' vice president of sales for Latin America, carriers should be proactive instead of waiting for telecom regulators to punish them for...
A new carrier was announced in Brazil last week. On Telecom will begin its operations backed by billionaire financier George Soros. The new competitor, which is targeting a niche in the Brazilian market, will offer home and office connections over TD-LTE. On Telecom is...
While TIM posted a 12% rise in its second-quarter profit, beating forecasts on strong cost controls, NII Holdings’ Nextel operations presented a consolidated net loss of $386 million.
TIM, Brazil's second-largest wireless telecom operator, said its postpaid base grew 13.9% year-over-year. During a conference call, Rodrigo...
The two largest telecom operators in Latin America have released their second quarter financial results. América Móvil beat expectations, reporting better-than-expected second quarter core profits and revenue, as more customers made mobile calls in Mexico and South America. As for the Spanish group Telefónica,...
Last week, the international telecom standards regulator, 3GPP, completed the standardization of LTE technology for the 450 MHz spectrum band. This is an important step, especially for Brazilian operators that acquired this band
It wasn’t an easy week for U.S.-based American Tower, as a report from Muddy Waters accused the company of a $250 million discrepancy between the price American Tower said it paid for towers in Brazil ($585.4 million) and the actual sale price, which, according...
SINGAPORE — Live TIM, the fiber optic broadband Internet service of Brazilian operator TIM, is set to launch fixed-telephony services by the beginning of next year. According to TIM chief marketing officer, Flavio Lang, the service will focus initially on residential clients and will be...
Brazilian telecommunications industry representatives gathered last week in Brazil's capital of Brasília for Telebrasil's 57º panel . About 600 people attended the the Brazilian telecom association's event. Here are some of the highlights:
Brazil has reached a total of 100 million broadband accesses, including both mobile and...
Colombia’s Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications has received six applications from telecom operators interested in participating in the frequency band auction aimed at deploying LTE across the country.
The interested firms were DirecTV, Avantel, ETB, Claro, Telefónica and a consortium of companies led by...
