tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-201771072011-08-07T05:59:29.221-05:00News and Marketing Analysis on Value Added Services for the Mobile IndustryRaul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.comBlogger951100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-71164894282765675892009-06-11T07:24:00.008-05:002009-06-11T10:13:29.934-05:00

This week I attended the 2009 Latin America Mobile VAS Forum in Miami (June 8-10), with the participation of analysts, technology vendors and operators.The global economic downturn is, not suprisingly, on everyone's mind. This topic kept coming up repeatedly and the attendance to the event, about half of what we saw in previous years is also an indicator of the tough times we face. However, it

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-79369612741232229982009-06-01T12:24:00.001-05:002009-06-01T12:24:01.745-05:00

This is a draft of my presentation for the 2009 Mobile VAS Forum in Miami, June 9-10.2009 IBC VAS Mobile Forum LATAMView more OpenOffice presentations from Raul Castanon.

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-14140295582621799622009-04-16T09:28:00.004-05:002009-04-16T10:01:19.917-05:00

A recent article published by the New York Times (Jill Colvin, "You’ve Got Voice Mail, but Do You Care?", April 1st, 2009) announced the demise of Voice Mail and the rise of new technology and services such as Google Voice's Voice to Text and the iPhone's Visual Voice Mail.According to the article, most people don't bother to listen to their voice mail messages and that the technology is

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-37219848565886196702009-04-07T16:03:00.004-05:002009-04-07T16:22:58.678-05:00

IDC predicts worldwide mobile phone shipments will fall 8.3% in 2009 (Cellular News). Q4 08 shipments fell 11.6%, marking the first time the holiday quarter has not recorded double digit growth in seven years. IDC also scaled back the outlook for smartphones as a result of the industry's changing dynamics, reducing from previously stated 8.7% to 3.4% growth.It is expected, however, that in the

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-65941841826986882232009-04-07T08:49:00.001-05:002009-04-07T08:49:28.042-05:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Latin American Telecom Industry Outlook 2009View more presentations from Raul Castanon.

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-17414893048820217922009-04-06T20:16:00.001-05:002009-04-06T20:16:59.461-05:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: 2009 Telecom OutlookView more presentations from Raul Castanon.

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-50833845223489706652009-03-20T08:14:00.018-05:002009-03-20T10:59:05.720-05:00

"This is the exact time to invest - if you can - because not only is there opportunity, but there are lots of resources out there." - Mike LazaridisPicture: Research In Motion co-CEOs Jim Balsillie (left) and Mike Lazaridis THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan We are one quarter into 2009, a year that is turning out to be one of the most challenging to navigate in recent history. As this first quarter

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-13785963359892016082009-03-16T08:00:00.021-05:002009-03-16T08:47:07.243-05:00

Pinky: Gee, Brain, what are we going to do tonight?Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky - try to take over the world! Last week Google announced that GrandCentral, acquired by Google in 2007, is now Google Voice, with new features including voicemail to text and archive and search of SMS text messages.Analysts and bloggers are divided on how this will impact voice revenues from local

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-74407060635306333462009-03-13T15:28:00.090-05:002009-03-14T07:18:26.711-05:00

"Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some." - Robert FulghumThe market for mobile applications has changed significantly in the last four years, when I first started working with these applications.Four years does not sound like a long time but in this industry it means I have lived through several generations of

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-71912306491267992542009-03-11T20:37:00.003-05:002009-03-11T23:08:48.325-05:00

Despite the economic downturn, it is expected that the latest mobile applications for smartphones like BlackBerry and iPhone will drive industry growth in the coming years, providing alternate sources of revenue for operators.A new report by Juniper Research forecasts that smartphones will account for 23% of all new handsets sold by 2013 (Cellular News). Another report by Informa forecasts 35

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-21119484173987187962009-03-08T08:10:00.002-05:002009-03-08T23:31:56.653-05:00

"When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure." ~Peter MarshallTechnology companies tend to view the Latin American mobile market as a single block; this might be in part because of the similarities in key demographic and economic factors including language, GDP and mobile penetration as well as the presence of

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-26079396103066259062009-03-02T20:58:00.014-05:002009-03-03T07:16:54.842-05:00

"Out of suffering comes creativity. You cannot spell painting without pain." John Lithgow in Third Rock From the Sun Halfway through the first quarter of the year, the outlook for the economy continues to deteriorate with operators and technology vendors facing reduced CAPEX, delayed investments and slower growth rates.LATINFOCUS (January 2009) expects Latin America to grow at the slowest pace in

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-57985774804766006712009-02-23T09:04:00.006-05:002009-02-23T10:42:03.735-05:00

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

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-63451520561291968032009-02-20T00:45:00.002-05:002009-03-10T19:42:18.725-05:00

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

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-17969830809170265522009-02-19T17:19:00.002-05:002009-02-19T22:45:52.816-05:00

"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

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-67890214822723039562009-02-16T14:52:00.054-05:002009-02-17T20:58:11.342-05:00

Sad In Blue (a lyric)by Peter S. QuinnSad sad sad in blue For sad sad sad youThe moon is all bluish tonightThe 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

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-20225705179415496402009-02-10T14:30:00.000-05:002009-02-14T09:28:22.819-05:00

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

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-75594360501736544562009-02-03T10:05:00.018-05:002009-02-03T15:56:25.532-05:00

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

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-25873686858542206942009-01-28T11:22:00.045-05:002009-01-30T17:55:19.363-05:00

"Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.” -Galileo GalileiThe intersection of the mobile space and the Internet continues to be a challenge for mobile operators. Mobile advertising, for example, is getting a lot of attention in the mobile industry but it has yet to consolidate as a significant revenue generator (see Mobile Advertising - Learning to play by the rules).

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-51337811874989411202009-01-27T11:16:00.003-05:002009-01-27T11:24:19.804-05:00

"Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity." -H. Jackson Brown Jr.This is a follow up to my two previous posts where I discussed opportunities and my top five predictions for the Latin America mobile market in 2009. The global economic downturn has forced operators to take a second look at new investments for 2009; however, this can be a good opportunity to look at things differently.

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-37448645544664225392009-01-14T08:23:00.028-05:002009-01-14T12:54:41.331-05:00

During the last quarter of 2008, as they finalized budgets and CAPEX allocation for the coming year, operators around the world were forced to take a second look at their growth expectations and make drastic changes to their 2009 plans. Operators are preparing to face the economic downturn with layoffs and by reducing CAPEX and OPEX and vendors are reacting to these measures and to the economic

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-62199389570097753562009-01-06T18:00:00.004-05:002009-01-11T15:40:56.011-05:00

"Profits are an opinion, cash is a fact."For my first post of the year, I will share my thoughts on what to expect for 2009, based on the economic outlook, industry trends and user behavior. So without further ado, here are my top five predictions for 2009 for the Latin America Mobile market:Growth will continue but at a slower rate than previously expected: Mr. José María Álvarez Pallete,

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-73963388918875643972008-12-29T08:44:00.032-05:002008-12-30T11:37:40.488-05:00

As the year comes to an end, it's a good idea to reflect on the past and learn from our experience, good or bad. With this in mind, I compiled a list of the good, the bad and the really bad news and analysis from the mobile industry in Latin America that I blogged about during 2008, with some additional comments and reflections. Enjoy!The good!!!!America Movil launches the iPhone - after much

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-35540781822561832282008-12-19T12:06:00.001-05:002008-12-19T12:11:07.245-05:00

Rob Pegoraro, blogger and author of Fast Forward, the Washington's Post Personal Technology column, wrote yesterday about the new BlackBerry models (see BlackBerrys Again Get Sleeker but Can't Challenge iPhone).I like Pegoraro's analysis on the new devices, it is very detailed and comprehensive, however his comparison to the iPhone, misses the point entirely.I have written extensively about how

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-75740110808784448462008-12-19T08:27:00.002-05:002008-12-19T11:45:43.472-05:00

A quick look at how the handset industry has changed after the iPhone was first introduced at Macworld 2007, confirms that visual interfaces are becoming a de facto standard for mobile devices:Just a few months after the iPhone launch by AT&T, Verizon launched the Voyager, made by LG. In early 2008, Sprint announced at CTIA the launch of the Samsung Instinct. More recently, just a few weeks ago,

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-20031633794766635362008-12-17T23:35:00.003-05:002008-12-19T11:36:33.805-05:00

Even before the economic meltdown, in the last three years operators operators worldwide were developing more aggressive business case guidelines for new and existing services. Operators such as Telefonica, Vodafone and Millicom today have imposed business case guidelines that are more strict than ever before.To comply, VAS managers have followed the strategy of evaluating subscribers and

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-56562510144369771092008-12-10T11:17:00.019-05:002008-12-13T05:20:40.501-05:00

Yesterday I attended a panel discussion titled "Mobile Advertising - Industry Revenue Enhancer or Distraction?" with key industry players (information below) who shared their experience and insight on the current status and potential of mobile advertising.The discussion centered around the fact that while mobile advertising is getting a lot of attention in the mobile industry it has not yet

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-375425917556062732008-12-09T13:11:00.036-05:002008-12-09T16:52:09.630-05:00

The current world recession is leading businesses and consumers to curtail spending, which is expected to affect growth and revenues during 2009.Every day we hear about how operators are preparing to face this economic downturn with layoffs and by reducing CAPEX and OPEX; just last week, AT&T announced plans to cut 4% of its work force (Cellular News); Sprint Nextel is also expected to announce

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-2912611400528832552008-12-06T09:24:00.014-05:002008-12-06T10:10:35.842-05:00

With mobile penetration around the world reaching saturation, and the growth rate for traditional services flattening, operators are looking for new options to increase revenue. However, traditional services (voice, SMS) continue to be the main revenue generators for operators and there are still many interesting options to continue milking the cash cow.Services such as Ring Back Tones, MMS and

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-65113879274020193772008-12-03T23:40:00.017-05:002008-12-04T00:59:16.554-05:00

We recently posted about Millicom's success in Latin America, where it is positioned as a reliable operator with strong customer loyalty.The Latin American market continues to grow and Millicom is benefitting from this, but it has also managed to gain market share from the two giants in the region, America Movil and Telefonica Movistar. The question is how is Millicom doing this?Both heavyweights

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-16811478139566819972008-12-03T22:22:00.017-05:002008-12-09T07:46:35.948-05:00

We recently posted our thoughts on remarks made by Marc Beuls, President and CEO of Millicom, at the Morgan Stanley 8th Annual Technology, Media and Telecoms Conference in Barcelona. Even though Millicom continues its impressive growth in Latin America, Mr. Beuls made it clear that that CAPEX for 2009 will be “substantially lower” than in 2008.It comes as no surprise that other major players in

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-62174814602260440372008-12-02T13:32:00.022-05:002008-12-03T13:30:51.198-05:00

This is a follow up to my recent post on a Cellular News article about the success of Telecom Argentina has had increasing SMS usage. I stated that this might indicate the need to pay more attention to other messaging services such as MMS, Instant Messaging, Personal Messaging as well as other data services.From the usage statistics we have from Pyramid Research (March 2008), we can see that SMS

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-73604682003100376862008-12-02T10:06:00.009-05:002008-12-02T10:44:04.268-05:00

As mobile operators finish completion of their budgets for 2009 and approach the holiday season, vendors anxiously await what will be one of the toughest years since the telecom downturn from the late 90's/2000.An interesting insight into what to expect for 2009 comes from Marc Beuls, President and CEO of Millicom, who presented to investors at the Morgan Stanley 8th Annual Technology, Media and

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-6489713153058056272008-12-01T08:43:00.006-05:002008-12-01T09:01:55.482-05:00

Cellular News (link to story here) reports that "... In its third quarter results for 2008 Telecom Argentina’s Personal unit recorded its fourth successive year-on-year increase in quarterly average ARPU – an impressive result in a market which now has a penetration rate of 104%".As we have mentioned here before, SMS represents for most countries in Latin America up to 90% of data revenue. SMS

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-79461640111663860352008-11-28T08:52:00.008-05:002008-12-06T07:56:33.135-05:00

Voice Mail and SMS have been in a mature stage for several years now; growth in most markets has slowed down and until recently, they kept the same form and functionality they had since they were first introduced years ago.Both services, however, remain the bread and butter of VAS services. In most markets (the USA being a notable exception) Voice Mail is the largest VAS contributor to revenue

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-16983148390085811682008-11-26T20:19:00.007-05:002008-11-26T20:45:19.345-05:00

This is a follow up to my last post about the relevance of Voice to Text for Voice Mail vendors.One of the main challenges operators face when introducing new value added services to their offering is defining the target segment and making sure these services will attract a large enough group of subscribers.A compelling business case is not the only factor that operators will use to determine

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-38356767527464699362008-11-26T13:57:00.005-05:002008-12-06T08:03:24.171-05:00

We have discussed previously (see here and here) the huge potential and appeal Voice to Text has and the fast penetration it has seen worldwide, including the recent launch in Latin America by Movistar Chile (see Spinvox press release here).Ther key element that seems to be missing, however, is the lack of enthusiasm Voice Mail vendors have shown for this service. Voice to text delivers voice

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-68665303661601200802008-11-20T20:39:00.006-05:002008-11-20T20:51:24.130-05:00

Following an earlier post (see here) about the potential VISUAL VOICE MAIL for iPhone has to impact subscriber data usage, I will be posting excerpts of an article I wrote for Convergencia Latina to expand on this topic.After more than one year of its launch, the iPhone has shown that traditional services such as voicemail and text messaging can greatly benefit from the use of visual interfaces

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-65815757008112913922008-11-20T16:24:00.002-05:002008-11-20T16:30:45.529-05:00

This is an article I published recently, related to an important topic which is CALL COMPLETION in Latin America. I have written about this topic before, as a reference please see the links below:VoiceMail 2.0: Coming soon to Latin America? Call Completion: Movistar Argentina launches "Quieren Hablarte" serviceArticle summary:In Latin America, average MOU and Voice ARPU continue to decline due to

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-68475434396394188642008-11-20T16:08:00.002-05:002008-11-20T16:19:24.925-05:00

This is a follow up to my post from October regarding the iPhone launch in Latin America (see here).The battle between America Movil and Telefonica Movistar was settled after Apple signed with Movistar; we expected this to happen since the official announcement from America Movil did not mention exclusivity. As we know now, Mexico will be the only country where only one operator will have

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-77057164678638544722008-11-20T14:58:00.002-05:002008-11-20T15:02:02.668-05:00

Interestingly, I found a blog with the same topic I just wrote about (Voice to Text VS Visual Voice Mail) posted yesterday so I thought I'd provide the link. Interesting stuff and it seems we agree on the challenge Voice to Text poses to Visual Voice Mail.Link to blog post at here ....iPhone SpinVox Users: Visual vs Visible?Recently, me and a couple of the guys here at SV HQ started thinking

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-92192168907720221322008-11-20T14:33:00.004-05:002008-11-20T14:57:09.685-05:00

Several operators in the Americas region are launching voice to text services. We have heard from Movistar Chile (see press release here) as well as other operators both in Latin America and North America who are getting ready to launch.Visual voice mail (as commented here before) has gained a lot of traction with the launch of Apple's iPhone, however, I believe that voice to text has the

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-20005841475137373012008-10-01T11:18:00.003-05:002008-10-01T11:31:34.080-05:00

Following a fierce battle with America Movil for exclusivity in the launch of the iPhone in Latin America, both America Movil and Telefonica were able sign an agreement with Apple.America Movil was able to leverage the fact that they were first to sign with Apple and Telefonica Movistar, trailing behind, decided to rush to the market in Chile and Argentina with minimal preparation.We were very

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-15484861867103224202008-10-01T11:09:00.006-05:002008-10-01T11:18:12.722-05:00

This is a follow up to our last post from June! We took a long break but are back with more news and analaysis.It has been more than a month since the iPhone was first launched in Latin America, after much anticipation and a fierce battle between Telefonica and America Movil (see links here and here).Now we hear that other major operators, as we anticipated here, are preparing for a possible

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-5840121866669313262008-06-12T06:22:00.003-05:002008-06-12T06:26:36.057-05:00

America Movil and Telefonica are the two giant competitors with presence in most of the region. However, there are other players in Latin America who hold up their own, such as Telecom Personal Argentina, TIM Brazil, Entel PCS and of course the Millicom group, who has become the third largest in the region and actually is the market leader in several of the countries it operates.Operators like

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-63381542610590420082008-06-12T06:17:00.004-05:002008-06-12T06:22:20.921-05:00

Yesterday Telefonica confirmed it finally reached an agreement with Apple to distribute the iPhone in 16 countries, including its operations in all of Latin America except for Mexico.This confirms the rumors that America Movil did not have exclusive rights, and now the iPhone will be available in several countries by two operators. Italy was the first country to have this type of

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-85057885474036722772008-05-07T18:55:00.002-05:002008-05-07T19:09:12.556-05:00

From Reuters, a little bit more information though basically the same we reported earlier today:http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0720230520080507America Movil to sell iPhone across Latin AmericaBy Chris AspinMEXICO CITY, May 7 (Reuters) - America Movil (AMXL.MX: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday it would sell Apple Inc's (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) iPhone across

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-21961251296179988062008-05-07T16:21:00.000-05:002008-05-07T16:25:48.521-05:00

News sources in Brazil today confirm that Mexican Telephony group America Movil officially announced that they were selected to distribute the iPhone in Latin America, including Brazil. The news does not provide a launch date but confirms that the iPhone will be available in Latin America in 2008 (iPhone should arrive to Brazil in 2008, May 7 2008).

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-41128944332173688042008-05-06T11:31:00.003-05:002008-05-06T11:41:46.349-05:00

Big news from several sources including Cellular News: In a very short statement, Vodafone announced that it has secured an agreement to launch Apple's iPhone in ten countries. "Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia , the Czech Republic , Egypt , Greece , Italy , India , Portugal , New Zealand , South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-28650906565422924362008-05-03T10:10:00.004-05:002008-05-04T08:51:51.735-05:00

It has been almost a year since the launch of the iPhone in the USA and only a few months since its introduction to the European maret. In this short period of time we have seen AT&T and Apple play with the pricing of the handset. Pricing for the service itself has not changed except for an additional package not offered in the beginning. In contrast, the European market sales of the device have

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-46560481418548497832008-04-30T10:26:00.002-05:002008-04-30T12:07:20.808-05:00

The big news this week was that Rogers finally made an official announcement that they will have the iPhone exclusive in Canada (from Cellular News). This is not news and apparently even though the company is not yet ready to give a launch date, they had to yield to the pressure since it was known they had been selected by Apple a while ago.The company made a brief statement through Ted Rogers,

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-46509828064979525232008-04-11T06:47:00.007-05:002008-04-11T07:43:14.688-05:00

This week we reported on the strong rumors surruounding the launch of a 3G version of the iPhone.Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg was quoted by several sources stating that an iPhone capable of connecting to faster, "3G" mobile networks is coming "in 60 days."Just yesterday, I found a retraction from Mr. Mossberg in the Thursday edition of FierceWireless newsletter.The whole

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-70080480839003459482008-04-09T12:35:00.003-05:002008-04-09T12:51:06.320-05:00

From Yahoo! News (link) we hear that Apple is expected to launch a high-speed wireless version of iPhone in the second quarter and produce as many as 8 million of the devices in the third quarter, according to Bank of America."Our latest channel checks point to a significant production build of a 3G iPhone beginning in the month of June after an initial small build in May," said Bank of America

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-91095339482010098232008-04-06T07:05:00.003-05:002008-04-06T07:22:04.854-05:00

With the leak to El Universal informing us that Telcel will launch the iPhone later this year, we can expect intense competition for the iPhone in the rest of the region.It was clear that Apple was not going to favor a global operator over another one. However, it is unlikely that neither Telefonica nor America Movil were willing to accept this condition, so we can probably expect now that the

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-34947332259068462532008-03-28T10:59:00.003-05:002008-03-28T11:07:01.187-05:00

From Mexican newspaper EL UNIVERSAL (link), and also reported by Cellular News (link), Telcel has finalized negotiations to launch the iPhone in Mexico.Interestingly, this comes the same week when news sources reported that Telefonica was closing an agreement with Apple for iPhone exclusivity in Latin America.As we reported here before, launching the iPhone with Telcel should be a no brainer, as

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-83153765510920923182008-03-26T13:48:00.003-05:002008-03-26T14:03:52.163-05:00

From adnmundo.com (link here) and tusbuscadores.com (link here) we learn that apparently Telefonica is moving to close negotiations for a regional agreement to launch the iPhone in Latin America.We had mentioned here previously that America Movil and Telefonica were both after the distribution and Apple was negotiating on a per country per operator basis. Apparently this may have changed if the

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-60539668112214298192008-03-20T08:46:00.005-05:002008-03-20T08:57:20.993-05:00

We had heard that both America Movil and Telefonica were in talks with Apple to launch the iPhone in Latin America (see here), with operations in Brazil and Mexico as the prime candidates. It was expected that negotiations were not going to be easy, both companies and particularly America Movil are well known to be tough negotiators.Apple, however, has given no indication that it will change its

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-87207977429640825172008-03-17T12:41:00.002-05:002008-03-17T12:49:19.530-05:00

Rich Miner, group manager for mobile platforms at Google was at the Emerging Communications Conference last week where he mentioned, after his presentation, that he expects Android-based devices to outpace sales of the popular iPhone (read note by By Richard Martin, InformationWeek here).Miner, however, stated that the iPhone and Android target different markets. The iPhone is "a single

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-43619035111027763292008-03-15T05:08:00.004-05:002008-03-15T05:18:56.986-05:00

Last week Apple released the much expected SDK for the iPhone, allowing thrid party applications to run on the handset. This move (from John O'Brien's Technology Blog MacChat) will reposition the iPhone in the corporate segment, which up until now has been dominated by RIM's BlackBerry.The iPhone is already the second most popular smartphone after the BlackBerry but up until now it was not a

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-16032060402154040612008-03-14T01:37:00.002-05:002008-03-14T01:57:09.364-05:00

We have talked a lot about Apple's iPhone, who has revolutionized the industry since its introduction in the USA last year. Now comes the "People's Phone", introduced at Barcelona this year, which sits at the opposite end of the spectrum in price and features (see story by the International Herald Tribune).Spice, an Indian based company, has introduced the greatest innovation since the iPhone: a

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-79134943043700733322008-03-13T12:23:00.004-05:002008-03-13T12:40:31.915-05:00

While everyone else impatiently waits for Apple to make up their mind about the iPhone, as reported here before (see here and here), CTI quietly launched their CORREO MULTIMEDIA CTI (CTI Multimedia Mail), which is a great option for deploying Visual Voice Mail to mass market.Even though the service currently is only available to the postpaid segment, this service is part of the Visual Voice Mail

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-67226431795423997192008-03-13T03:08:00.005-05:002008-03-13T12:39:34.818-05:00

Comverse at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was selected as a finalist for the 2008 GSMA Global Mobile Award in the Best Mobile Messaging Service category. They showed us not only their iPhone Visual VoiceMail but also other demos for different types of handsets for non iPhone operators and segments.This is probably the single most important breaktrhough innovation in VoiceMail since it was

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-10712898525578912212008-02-28T19:07:00.005-05:002008-02-28T19:17:32.191-05:00

From one of my favorite techie blogs at Salon.com, Farhad Manjoo today posted about Google working together with the city of San Francisco to provide free voice mail to to the city's homeless:"Bless Google for doing something amazing: The company is handing out phonenumbers and voice-mail boxes to every homeless person in San Francisco.Folks can sign up for the numbers at shelters across the city

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-71180360030660174922008-02-28T09:51:00.012-05:002008-02-28T11:09:27.761-05:00

Yesterday we posted about Ovum's particpation at Barcelona GSMA and Forrester's Tecnographics Webinar, both focusing on new revenue opportunities for mobile operators: Mobile Advertising (Ovum) and Gen Y's use of interactive media (Forrester Technographics).Pyramid today published a new report titled "Social Networking Goes Mobile", (from the report excerpt) ; this report "assesses the current

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-5948692523175496362008-02-27T14:32:00.006-05:002008-02-27T15:27:26.383-05:00

As a follow up to our previous post addressing Ovum's participation in Barcelona highlighting the rise of mobile on line advertising, I'd like to share with you my thoughts on the Webinar run today by Forrester Resarch.I joined today a Webinar run by Ted Schadler and Jackie Rousseau of Forrester Research.The Webinar, titled A Marketer’s Dream? Connecting with U.S. Gen Y through Interactive Media,

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-8079099224035560072008-02-27T07:52:00.004-05:002008-02-27T08:16:39.262-05:00

John Delaney and Vincent Poulbere from Ovum bring to our attention how mobile advertising can help operators face their two biggest challenges: declining ARPUs and expanding their reach into media.An interesting initiative by GSMA announced at Barcelona was the creation of a Working Group to define common metrics and measurement processes for mobile advertising. Vodafone, Telefonica, T-Mobile,

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-40026519501699458412008-02-26T19:50:00.003-05:002008-02-26T19:51:48.194-05:00

We are back after a couple of weeks with a lot of news and information, including latest happenings and info from Barcelona .... many new posts coming soon! We have info from the latest trends in the industry and the impact we expect for Latin America.

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-36956130555312910172008-02-06T07:51:00.000-05:002008-02-06T08:04:42.730-05:00

From UNSTRUNG NEWS ANALYSIS, René Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG is quoted stating that even though Europe is not selling as many iPhones as AT&T, the iPhone is helping to drive up mobile data use (iPhone Data Booms at T-Mobile).This is interesting news for operators in Latin America interested in launching the iPhone. The unique situation of the US market sometimes makes it difficult to

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-15552803498404535132008-02-05T21:08:00.000-05:002008-02-05T21:40:26.077-05:00

This is a follow up to my previous posts (see here and here) on the announcements -or lack of- by Apple during Macworld.No 3g iPhone, no new operators, no Latin America, no nothing .... very disappointing! I am still hoping for announcements in the coming weeks, that both Claro Brazil and Telcel Mexico will be the two operators launching the iPhone in Latin America. After all, Apple kept at least

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-57741100605481038312008-02-05T20:55:00.000-05:002008-02-06T07:45:30.195-05:00

Not sure what to think of the headline in the Newspaper CLARIN highlighting the success of Instant Messaging in Argentina: "One hundred thousand already chatting in their mobile phone: IM has been in service for more than a year" (loosely translated for my readers that do not read Spanish, link here for those that do). I understand the point they are trying to make but somehow, if the news is

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-65807255361858125312008-02-04T10:17:00.000-05:002008-02-04T10:30:25.551-05:00

The initiative by Brazilian Operators together with GSMA is groundbreaking in Latin America, not only because of the imminent launch of Personal Instant Messaging in the region with all six operators offering interconnection but also for the fact that these operators are sitting together in a work group to define a product, evaluate vendors and complete a through study before launch.We expect

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-12796593168167571472008-01-16T08:47:00.000-05:002008-01-16T08:54:47.799-05:00

From Cellular News today:"At the Macworld conference, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that the company had sold 4 million units of its iPhone handset since it was launched exactly 200 days ago. He noted that was 20,000 phones sold per day, on average."Jobs claims that the market share for the iPhone in the USA has reached 19.5%, placing them second behind RIM within the smartphone market. Jobs

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-55892091982830824102008-01-14T08:35:00.000-05:002008-01-14T08:43:57.295-05:00

As reported previously here (see here, here and here), six major Brazilian Operators have come together to launch Personal IM and build an operator led mobile IM community in the Brazilian market by Q2 08.Participating operators are Vivo, Claro, Oi, Brasil Telecom, Telemig Amazonia, TIM.These operators are working together with Paloma Vivanco, Market Development Manager for Personal IM of the GSM

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-7105589438936055192008-01-07T16:38:00.000-05:002008-01-07T16:46:27.145-05:00

It appears that operators in Brazil are taking the lead now in deploying Personal Instant Messaging, following GSM Association's technical and commercial framework, which has already been deployed by other operators in Europe and Asia.The most interesting aspect of the efforts done by the largest operators in Brazil, including TIM, Oi, Claro and Vivo is adopting the framework proposed by GSMA,

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-66666658928451194872008-01-02T09:32:00.000-05:002008-01-02T09:33:47.419-05:00

Given MSN's slow approach to developing the MIM market in Latin America, it will be interesting tosee if Telefonica's strategy of repackaging Personal IM as SMS 2.0 -like they are doing in Spain- will work in Latin America.It is no secret that operators in Latin America have triedfor several years to sign an agreement with MSN for Mobile Instant Messaging with no success. Until 2006, only

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-51771196236773824972007-12-28T07:44:00.000-05:002007-12-28T08:12:39.512-05:00

About a month ago, GSM Association issued a press release announcing Personal Instant Messaging Services Go Live in Asia with the commercial launch of IM in India (Aircel, Bharti Airtel, BPL Mobile, BSNL, Idea, MTNL, Reliance Telecom, Spice and Vodafone-Essar) and Malaysia (DiGi Telecommunications and Maxis), which allows customers of those networks to send each other instant messages using their

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-61899954182433011302007-12-27T09:32:00.000-05:002007-12-27T17:52:12.542-05:00

This holiday season operators in Chile launched intense campaigns to promote their 3G services (see Claro and Entel PCS TV commercials). Services promoted are Video Telephony and Digital TV and Radio, with the promise of "other services coming soon".This comes as no surprise as Chile is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the region. According to the second annual Latin

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-8526699428998045282007-12-26T08:13:00.000-05:002008-01-10T12:17:51.131-05:00

Voicemail has been a common service for both wireless and fixed network operators in Latin America for more than 10 years but it has remained essentially unchanged since its introduction. Calls on busy/unavailable/unreachable are transferred to Voicemail, where callers can leave a message. The called party receives a notification, usually by SMS and then dials in, enters a password and listens to

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-75152827586762573372007-12-21T11:53:00.000-05:002008-01-02T09:31:13.119-05:00

Given MSN's slow approach to developing the MIM market in Latin America, it will be interesting tosee if Telefonica's strategy of repackaging Personal IM as SMS 2.0 -like they are doing in Spain- will work in Latin America.It is no secret that operators in Latin America have triedfor several years to sign an agreement with MSN for Mobile Instant Messaging with no success. Until 2006, only

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-67851067541703395952007-12-21T10:30:00.000-05:002007-12-21T11:10:31.774-05:00

The iPhone has shaken the industry in a way that only an outsider could do. Apple broke all the rules and moved swiftly into the handset business with the most successful device ever -or at least the most talked about; according to Google, the iPhone Was The Most-Searched Item In 2007.But it's not only the technology and the user interface that are extremely innovative in the iPhone. The terms of

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-77923585850357158302007-12-19T10:14:00.000-05:002007-12-19T10:41:49.144-05:00

A little more than a year ago, Telefonica Moviles Spain and Colibria announced the launch of SMS 2.0 (source Colibira Press release, Nov 2006). Earlier this year, both parties announced interconnectivity with Vodafone’s Messenger (source Colibria Press release, Feb 2007).Telefonica has been working hard this year to bring the same service to Latin America. This should be an interesting move,

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-25109610499038423382007-12-18T10:37:00.000-05:002007-12-18T22:16:23.807-05:00

Following my post from yesterday regarding the opportunity that Mobile Instant Messaging represents in Latin America, I found out that two major players, OZ and Neustar recently issued interesting press releases:NeuStar has announced that it has reached a milestone in the development of mobile instant messaging (IM) globally, having delivered 3 billion mobile IM messages across its servers (

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-50336814091154584962007-12-17T07:29:00.001-05:002007-12-18T10:12:30.515-05:00

Despite operator's interest and efforts in the last three years or so, Latin America has yet to catch up to their counterparts in the USA, Australia and Europe with a gateway/client MIM solution.The issue seems to be that so far, operators have shown interest in a portal messenger, in a region where MSN has more than 80% market share (90% according to some). Movistar and America Movil have both

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-541258471887569242007-12-14T10:59:00.000-05:002007-12-17T07:11:56.897-05:00

Movistar Argentina has launched "Quieren Hablarte" (December 11, 2007), a new service that allows prepaid customers to send an SMS notification to other Movistar subscribers when their credit runs out (source: Movistar Press release, also AHCIET).Movsitar also has the "Avisame" service, which notifies them of the availability of the called party up to 3 hours after a failed call atempt.These

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-68209634887821284612007-12-13T09:57:00.001-05:002008-12-30T10:47:08.260-05:00

Fatima Raimondi, CEO of the Southern Unit for Ericsson Latin America stated that "A year ago, when I talked about 3G in the region, many thought of it as a fantasy; but now we can see it has been throughly realized" (interview for Convergencialatina, 2007 Latin American Yearbook MOBILES).The Southern Cone leads the region in technology and launch of 3G networks: Chile was the first to launch with

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-4327166362707231742007-12-12T13:34:00.000-05:002007-12-12T14:06:08.944-05:00

According to Cellular News, Apple also has reached exclusive deals with T-Mobile in Germany and France Telecom, and is expected to reach exclusive deals with operators in Russia and China.The article points out how Apple's strategy may limit their potential in the long term, since cellphone industry giants are fighting back with cellphones of their own to counter the iPhone.Apple's strategy is to

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-47036719304962849062007-12-12T10:23:00.000-05:002007-12-12T11:26:36.677-05:00

Brough's COMMUNICATIONS Blog from 12/08/2007 talks about Ringback Tones Adoption Rates, a service that has been very successful in Asia as a money maker and music distribution channel:Nearly 55% of Korean subscribers have ringback tone service; China Mobile has close to 50% adoption. In contrast, adoption rates in Europe were below 10%; the US has ~12M subscribers or 5%.What about Latin America?

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-69929919180097640332007-12-11T14:02:00.000-05:002007-12-11T15:42:32.717-05:00

From Cellular News and other news sources, we find out that Microsoft has started placing advertisements on the U.S. version of MSN Mobile.Microsoft already serves up mobile ads in Japan and some European markets. Competitor Yahoo began selling cell phone ads phones in the U.S. in late 2006 and expanded overseas in February (source: Cellular News).What about Latin America?Microsoft introduced MSN

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-33143473860477483242007-12-10T15:24:00.000-05:002007-12-10T16:01:47.495-05:00

"2007 was the year 3G services started to become widely available throughout the Americas," remarked 3G Americas President, Chris Pearson. "There is widespread deployment of HSDPA in the US and Canada, and UMTS/HSPA networks are now launched in many markets in Latin America and the Caribbean."Operators in Argentina (Personal, Movistar, CTI Movil), Chile (Entel PCS), Uruguay (Ancel, CTI Movil and

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-71512595094540203672007-12-10T12:34:00.000-05:002007-12-13T10:45:57.919-05:00

Latin America's largest groups, Telefonica Movistar and America Movil, have indicated their intentions to put in place the infrastructure necessary to deploy 3G services (see here and here). This will allow faster access to content and faster downloads, improving access to advanced services.The other pieces of the puzzle should follow, mainly the penetration of capable handsets, “smart phones”

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-15200339407686085542007-12-06T16:33:00.000-05:002007-12-06T19:06:28.510-05:00

Mexico's America Movil announced recently the commercial launch of advanced third-generation services in several markets early next year (America Movil Sees 3g Launch 1q 08).The group's Argentine subsidiary, mobile operator CTI Movil, launched 3G services in greater Buenos Aires, Rosario and Cordoba, following similar launches earlier this year by rivals Telecom Personal and Movistar (CTI Movil

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-1135625646380566832005-12-26T14:31:00.000-05:002005-12-26T14:34:06.386-05:00

Yet more uses for Mobile phones & text messagingMobile phones to announce 'you've been indicted' this note appeared in the "Odd News" section and is in South Korea but I thought it'd be interesting to comment on it.In a country where about 75 percent of the population carries mobile phones, prosecutors felt it was time to move away from sending legal notices on paper and send them electronically

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-1135555922921229122005-12-25T19:08:00.000-05:002005-12-26T12:54:41.980-05:00

Mobile Content & Marketing in Latin America Tierra Innovation, Inc. new report "Mobile Content & Marketing in Latin America: Update" (Nov. 2005) contains an update and "revised estimates for the value of mobile content in the region, subscriber targets and growth rates, developments in the top five markets, and a fundamental look at the big picture - the wireless vs. wired nature of Latin

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-1135554208908451182005-12-25T18:42:00.000-05:002005-12-25T18:52:46.670-05:00

RIM to Launch BlackBerry in Latin AmericaTelefónica Móviles and Research In Motion To Launch BlackBerry Across Latin America BlackBerry will be available in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay and VenezuelaMadrid, Spain and Waterloo, Ontario - Telefónica Móviles and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20177107.post-1135540204822874772005-12-25T14:39:00.000-05:002005-12-26T10:31:47.096-05:00

Latin America operators are following a VAS trend that exploded first in Asia and shortly thereafter in Europe: Ring Back Tones.With the introduction of "tu musica de espera" Movistar Chile is leading the way. Pricing follows the same scheme as other regions, with a flat monthly fee and a per download fee (http://www.movistar.cl/servicios/interactivo/?id=190):Download - $990 Chilean Pesos (

Raul Castanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16217794567909792629noreply@blogger.com0