LATAM Telecom

With voice ARPU steadily declining and mobile penetration reaching 100% in major markets, operators in Latin America continue to explore different options for revenue generation services that will allow investments in 3G infrastructure to be recuperated. 3G technologies were widely deployed in Latin America during 2007 and 2008, but wireless Internet and data services are still in its infancy in the region; data represents on average less than 15% of total ARPU and SMS bring in most of data ARPU. In Latin America, LBS is not new but we had not seen any major breakthroughs until last week, when America Movil and Nokia announced a partnership to bring Nokia Maps Navigation to consumers in Latin America ( America Movil and Nokia Help Mobile Users in Latin America Navigate Their World , Feb 18, 2009). The other major announcement came a few days before the press release from America Movil. Ericsson announced a partnership with Networks in Motion to offer customers turn-by-turn directions ...

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Voice Mail Strategy Chile View more presentations from Raul Castanon . (tags: voice mail )

"Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity." -H. Jackson Brown Jr.: Participants at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week got a chance to discuss new and exciting trends in mobile services like Location Based Services, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Advertising and Advanced Messaging services. However, the single topic that stole the show is the economic uncertainty that mobile operators and technology companies are facing. The keynote conference that opened the congress on Tuesday says it all: " Sustaining Growth in Challenging Times "(1). No one can argue that these are tough times but doing nothing seems to be the current modus operandi of the industry. My friend Mark Pendergast referred to me a great article by Professor John A. Quelch of Harvard " Marketing Your Way Through a Recession ". Published almost a year ago, it is even more relevant today: "In a recession, consumers become value oriented, distributors are concerned ab...

Sad In Blue (a lyric) by Peter S. Quinn Sad sad sad in blue For sad sad sad you The moon is all bluish tonight The night is all dark out side. So what does one wear to a recession? It doesn't really matter as long as you show up! This week technology vendors and operators meet at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and designers get to show their collections at Fashion Week in New York City. Both events might not seem to have much in common, but one topic is grabbing headlines at both: the economic downturn. At Fashion Week this year the events are less festive than usual; journalists and fashion bloggers are noticing: " Fashion Weak: Where has all the glamour gone? " (New York Post); " Fashionistas have turned into recessionistas " (USA Today). According to Christopher Muther of the Boston Globe , "there are fewer gift bags for fashion buyers and editors, and the steady stream of opulent parties has slowed to a trickle. Instead of pricey runway shows,...

Subscriber usage behavior clearly shows that the Latin American market is ready for a solution such as GSMA Personal IM, also known as SMS 2.0 (Telefonica Spain, Acision) or Instant SMS (Comverse). The chart above measures three elements: Data ARPU (x), mobile penetration (y) and average number of SMS messages per user per month for several Latin American countries (1) . The countries with SMS usage in the region are Venezuela, Argentina and Ecuador; with Colombia having the lowest SMS usage. These countries also have a higher data ARPU; this is not surprising as in Latin America 70% to 90% of data revenue comes from SMS. What's relevant here is subscriber SMS usage, surpassing 100 messages per user per month as in the case of Venezuela and more recently Argentina; this tells us that heavy users are actually having live conversations using SMS; in other words, a segment of subscribers uses SMS as Instant Messaging, with a higher number of messages going back and forth per conversa...

The time has come for SMS 2.0? In the last three years, we have seen vendors introduce new messaging solutions, all claiming to be the next step in SMS evolution. Presence enabled services have received a lot of attention but have limited traction in the mobile market. IM, by no means a new service, has been one of the most successful services but still far behind the penetration SMS has. SMS reached a mature stage years ago, its growth rate has flattened and it has kept the same form and functionality since it was first introduced. However, it remains one the top revenue generator for mobile operators. So what do you do for an encore? Cellular News published an interesting note on February 2nd: "­Acision has announced that Russian mobile operator, MTS is using its Instant Messaging solution to offer an enhanced messaging experience to its subscribers. Combining the Acision Person to Person Gateway with core elements from Colibria's product portfolio - including the Instant M...