TIM Brasil's gross revenue fell 1.5% in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared to the same quarter of 2013 and decreased 2.2% year-over-year for 2014. However, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased 6.4% in 2014 when compared to the previous year. During Q4, EBITDA...
Antonio Carlos Valente, the president of Telefónica Vivo, said the company is waiting for a decision from the Administrative Council for Economic Defense before moving forward with integrating GVT's operations. Telefónica bought GVT last year from the French group Vivendi.
Speaking with members of the press during the Campus Party...
Two big moves by large carriers within a single week will bring big changes to Latin American wireless markets.
AT&T’s announcement that it will acquire Nextel Mexico showed how the U.S.-based carrier plans to expand its operations further in the country after its purchase of Iusacell.
“AT&T announced its intention to implement a 'one...
After the general meeting of Portugal Telecom SGPS shareholders was postponed, Oi said that while it supported the meeting delay, the sale of its stake in PT Portugal to Altice is the best alternative for the company. At the meeting, which was originally scheduled for...
Colombia's Communications Regulation Commission announced a reduction in interconnection rates, the fees that telecom operators pay to connect with each other. ICT Minister Diego Molano Vega said the move is part of the government's effort to promote competition and benefit consumers.
Between 2010 and 2014, prices paid by users fell by 19%....
Big data solution adoptions in Brazil are being driven by telecom operators and the financial industry. Carlos Cunha, country manager for EMC Brazil, said at a press conference that big data projects increased this year in the country, but the lack of qualified professionals is still a...
Argentina auctioned 10 bands of spectrum and raised about $2.23 billion. The bands auctioned were 850 MHz, 1900 MHz, 1.7/2.1 GHz and 700 MHz. The auction focused on increasing the country's mobile Internet access, including LTE. Four pre-qualified companies bid in the auction: three market incumbents —Telefónica,...
Vietnamese-owned Viettel Group last week officially launched its Bitel-branded mobile service in Peru. The operator, the fourth entrant into the market, launched with a 3G network that it said covers 80% of the nation with mobile broadband service.
Viettel in early 2013 initially launched technical...
With an expected investment of $1.2 billion over the next five years, Entel, which bought Nextel Peru in 2013, has begun its new operations in Peru, seeking to stimulate competition in the telecommunications market. The carrier's investment will focus on network deployment, technology and growth in customer...
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...
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, 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...
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 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,...
