RIO DE JANEIRO – One of the biggest challenges facing LTE deployments in Brazil is the large number of sites required to provide coverage bumping up against laws restricting the installation of new towers. This will be especially apparent as LTE networks across the...
RIO DE JANEIRO – While Chinese telecom equipment vendors hit a snag this week in the United States with the House Intelligence Committeeadvising American companies not to buy network gear from Huawei or fellow Chinese vendor ZTE, Telefónica announced it has tapped Huawei and Ericsson...
Telefónica Global Solutions and Verizon Enterprise Solutions have agreed to a telepresence interoperability agreement. By joining forces to expand collaboration tools, the telcos aim to meet the growing demand for video meetings.
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The alliance will enable Verizon Immersive Video...
The LTE journey has begun in Mexico. Telefónica’s Movistar brand has begun deploying LTE across the country, with initial launch plans to cover the areas of Polanco, Ciudad de México; Zapopan, Jalisco; and San Pedro, Nuevo León. The announcement was made by Juan Antonio...
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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Major leadership changes were announced this week at the Colombian telecommunications regulator (CRC) and the Spanish telecom operator Telefónica.
CRC's executive director, Carlos Andrés Rebellón, has resigned his position. He had been the head of the CRC since November 5, 2010. In his resignation letter,...
Following recent investments in the machine-to-machine space, mobile advertising and in a fund to detect and finance new businesses, Spanish mobile phone operator Telefónica is now jumping into augmented reality business. Through its Telefónica Digital business, the company today announced a global partnership with...
Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) signed an agreement with Telefonica to overhaul the international operator’s network management systems.
Telefonica operates in 25 countries, and this contract covers its top 15 properties, according to Chris Wade, managing director for Alcatel-Lucent's OSS practice. Its current operational processes differ from country to country,...
The Spanish group Telefónica has taken one more step to develop the machine-to-machine (M2M) business. The telecom operator announced a joint investment with La Caixa in addFleet, a company specialized in making intelligent systems for transportation. AddFleet is preparing the international launch of a...
The Spanish group Telefónica announced the launch of an international network of technology venture capital funds, starting with a capital base of about U.S.$376.1 million (€300 million). Dubbed Amérigo, the network aims to detect and finance new businesses that are innovating in the digital...
When negotiating renewal of its licenses in Peru, Spanish-owned Telefónica announced it would investment U.S.$29.50 million (PEN 77 million) in the regions of Lambayeque and Piura to improve infrastructure, and expand and improve telecommunication service coverage.
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In...
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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Spanish telecom giant Telefónica could move its Latin American headquarters from Madrid to São Paulo. Although rumors say the move is planned, a Telefónica Brazil spokesperson explained to RCR Wireless News that while the company is conducting studies about moving the regional command to...
Small cell technology continues to make inroads into carrier deployments as Ruckus Wireless announced today that Telefonica’s O2 operations in the United Kingdom has begun deploying its products for coverage across parts of London.
Ruckus noted that the deployment uses its SmartCell 8800 products to...
The much-anticipated LTE spectrum auction in the United Kingdom is scheduled to begin this year, but there won't be any bidding until 2013. The United Kingdom's telecom regulating authority, Ofcom, announced the details of the plan today that aims to provide nearly the entire population...
Spanish Telefónica said it will make a multi-million-euro investment to kick start mobile advertising in Brazil, using the O2 media model that was successful in the U.K. as a blueprint. The announcement was made July 5 at a London event, where Telefónica Digital revealed...
Vivo, the Brazilian unit of Spain-based Telefónica, said it has increased its machine-to-machine accesses by 2.5-times in a period of one year (from May 2011 to May 2012). Although M2M applications are just starting to be adopted in the Latin American region, including in...
The French company Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) has closed a deal with the Spanish group Telefónica to provide femtocells throughout Europe and South America. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The announcement was made on the same day that the...
Looking to counter Carlos Slim's telecommunications giant América Móvil, Mexican operator Grupo Iusacell and Telefónica said they will enter a network sharing deal. Details of the agreement haven’t been announced yet, but it is expected the companies will share wireless towers and fiber-optic cables....
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...
Spain telecom giant Telefónica announced it has agreed to sell almost half its stake in China Unicom (4.56%) for about $1.41 billion (€1.13 billion) to the Chinese telecom’s unlisted parent company. It is part of Telefónica's efforts to cut debt. China Unicom’s shares (CHU...
The U.K. wireless market continues its evolution as today rivals Telefonica UK, which operates under the O2 brand, and Vodafone UK announced plans to cooperate on “basic” network infrastructure that will see them share assets across 18,500 cell sites. The carriers said the move...
Telefónica is planning an initial public offering of its German O2 unit as a move to raise cash to pay-down debt and protect the company against América Móvil's efforts to expand its presence in Europe. In addition it would help Telefónica’s finances during 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...
