RIO DE JANEIRO – Telecom operators have to secure partnerships to make the machine-to-machine market take off across Brazil. During a panel held at this week’s Futurecom event, executives from carriers and vendors discussed the main challenges of developing solutions to fit in the...
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...
In a month when Anatel, Brazil's telecom regulatory agency, banned three telecom operators from selling mobile services for ten days, the country registered the lowest growth rate since 2006: with only 279,723 new active lines  added in July. Brazil now counts a total of 256.41 million of...
Anatel reports TIM disconnected calls on purpose
A report released last week by Brazil’s telecom regulator agency Anatel claims that TIM Brasil purposely dropped calls on customers of its low-cost Infinity Plan that charges customers by the call and not on the length of those...
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...
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry.
Anatel, the Brazilian regulator, concluded its spectrum auction on June 12, offering 4G services in the...
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.
The week of June 10 was one of the most eagerly awaited in the history of Latin America's telecommunications industry....
The first step to a national LTE deployment in Brazil began yesterday with the beginning of spectrum auctions conducted by government regulator Anatel. There were few surprises among first-day winners – the country's big-four carriers, but the results pave the way for the start...
Brazil's auction of LTE spectrum produced no surprises as the country's largest operators secured spectrum assets in the 2.5 GHz band designed for the rollout of mobile broadband services. Brazil's regulatory body Anatel noted that carriers bid a total of $1.314 billion (R$2.72 billion)...
Brazilian telecom agency Anatel said that six telecom groups have submitted bids for Brazil's upcoming frequency tenders in the 2.5 GHz and 450 MHz bands. The bidding events are intended to help roll out LTE technology throughout the country.
The participating telecom groups are Claro...
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry.
After reaching the second position in the Brazilian mobile market last August, TIM Brasil reached another...
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...
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,...
Telecom Italia’s TIM Brazil led the Brazilian wireless market for growth in April with 808,000 net additions, according to Brazilian telecom agency Anatel. Rival Oi posted the second strongest growth for the month with 507,000 new lines, followed by Telefonica’s Vivo (481,000 net additions)...
RIO DE JANEIRO – Telecom infrastructure, affordable devices, quality of service (QoS) and coverage are the main issues hindering LTE deployment in Brazil, according to Vivo’s planning and technology director Atila Branco. “Moving to LTE is natural, but there are great challenges to face....
After 18 months working on the Vivo integration, Telefonica announced that starting April 15 all Brazilian products, including mobile, fixed, pay-TV and broadband services for consumers and enterprise segments, will be re-branded under the Vivo name (which means "Alive" in English). Currently, Brazil is Telefonica's biggest...
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...
Telefónica Group's Brazilian operations announced plans to cut 1,500 jobs. The announcement followed a pair of government decisions ordering the group to pay fines for not meeting service quality agreements.
The job cuts are part of the group's integration process that began in mid-2010, and...
Brazilian regulatory agency Anatel released the country's latest cellphone numbers showing that at the end of January the country reached 245.2 million mobile lines, which was a 1.22% increase compared to December. However, Anatel said the absolute number of new customers (2.9 million) was...
With the increase of mobile data subscribers in emerging market, a growing number of telecom operators are seeking inform customers about their usage levels. Executives from Syniverse Technologies are looking at Latin America as a great market for this service.
“Brazil is a key area...
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.
Brazilian Picture
The number of mobile broadband capable accesses in Brazil grew 82.18% last year, totalizing 18.6 million new devices, according...
