Dominated by the two largest Latin American telecom operators, Peru's wireless market still holds promise. As observers have noted, there is room to grow in Peru as mobile penetration is at 96%, 2G services accounts for 91% of the total market and 76% of...
Peru’s unit of Telefónica has accepted the requirements imposed that the Peruvian government for renewing its operating licenses. Telefónica classified the conditions and terms required by the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) as harsh and said that they are unprecedented.
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Chile has reached 4,342,397 mobile broadband Internet connections, representing a 24.9% penetration, according to the latest report from Chile's secretary of telecommunications, Subtel. Smartphone Internet connections represented 70.82% while dongles (modems) accounted for 29.18% of all 3G accesses by the third quarter of 2012.
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Seven telecom operators have joined together to ask the Colombian government to make the wireless market more competitive. Avantel, Azteca, DirecTV, ETB, Movistar, Une and Tigo released a joint statement complaining of competition problems in the country. Â "If it stays like it is, a...
As the second largest telecommunications market in Latin America, Mexico commands great interest from foreign companies. Nevertheless, over the last decade most of the attention has originated
Looking to increase operators’ network capacity, Venezuelan telecom regulator Conatel has assigned additional spectrum to the state-run Movilnet, to Telefónica subsidiary Movistar and to the domestically-owned Digicel in the 1.8 GHz and 1.9 GHz bands. Conatel noted that the additional spectrum is aimed at...
The Venezuelan wireless company Movistar, a unit of the Spanish group Telefónica, announced it is increasing its infrastructure investment in 2012 to U.S.$535 million (Bs.2.300 million). It has also been awarded 20 MHz in the 1900 MHz spectrum band.
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Spain's Telefónica faces a major challenge to its Peru-based Movistar operations as the government is evaluating the renewal of three of its operating licenses. Movistar is the largest telecom group in the country, holding about 60% of country’s wireless market share.
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Venezuela’s three mobile network operators – state-run Movilnet, Telefónica subsidiary Movistar and domestically-owned Digitel – have responded to last month’s invitation to participate in a tender for three blocks of mobile spectrum in the 1710 MHz-2170 MHz mobile frequency bands, the National Telecommunications Commission...
Vietnamese-owned Viettel, an operator with assets in Haiti and Peru, has shown interest in expanding into other Latin American markets. Viettel announced it will start operating in Peru in January 2013, approximately two years after the carrier secured a 25 MHz spectrum license in the...
Among the key challenges for launching mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) across Latin America are the negotiations between MVNOs and mobile network operators (MNOs) and the time-to-market. Several countries in the region have already moved from being potential markets to actual markets. Nevertheless, MVNO...
Wanda, the mobile money joint venture between Telefónica and MasterCard, launched in Argentina, eyeing the millions of wireless users who don't have a bank account. Wanda is expected to reach approximately 10 million transactions by the end of 2012.
Announced earlier this year, the m-payment...
The Colombian unit of Spain’s Telefónica has unified its services under the brand Movistar. The move includes its fixed telephony, broadband services and satellite TV, and follows the company’s international direction of offering its services under three brands worldwide – Movistar, O2 and Vivo.
In Colombia,...
America Movil’s Chilean unit Claro, Telefonica’s local wireless operations Movistar, and Chilean Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Entel) have each presented proposals for the 2.6 GHz frequency band tender, which will be responsible for the deployment of LTE networks in Chile.
Each proposal received scores, which...
In the same week that Spanish telecom giant Telefónica announced a $502 million (Bs 2.16 billion) investment in its Movistar unit in Venezuela, the Argentinian government fined it about $41.7 million (185 million pesos) for a massive service outage there in April.
In Argentina, Planning...
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,...
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...
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...
