LATAM Telecom

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 revenue for the Argentinean market represents more than 85% of total messaging revenues. While this is expected to change over time, the numbers we have clearly reflect that SMS is still the main source of revenue from messaging. In early 2007, Telecom Personal launched an initiative to evaluate Mobile Instant Messaging, following Telefonica Movistar's agreement with MSN, which was discussed in this blog (see here ). Telecom Personal went through the process of issuing an RFP and evaluating and selecting a vendor but in the end decided not to launch the service. I believe that was a missed...

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 Association. With this, Brazil leads the effort for deploying Personal Instant Messaging in Latin America. Other efforts include Telefonica Movistar. We have not heard yet from the largest operator in the region, Telcel (Mexico), but surely after this announcement, they will pay close attention to this service which has already been successfully deployed in Europe and Asia.

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, which allows interconnection. Other operators in Europe and Asia are already working with this framework, where interconnection is a key element. Even though operators in Brazil are still in initial stages, in discussions with different vendors, it appears that 2008 will be the year for Personal Instant Messaging in Latin America.

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 Technology Index from Latin Business Chronicle , Chile tops the list with the highest Internet and broadband penetration, the second-highest wireless telephony penetration and the third-highest PC penetration in Latin America. Latin America operators have quickly moved to putting in place all the infrastructure necessary for 3G, with operators in Chile, Argentina, Brazil leading the way. It is not a bad thing that operators are updating their networks, the question remains, however, What does 3G bring to Latin American markets? These services not only require new handsets, which can make t...

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 Mobile in the Latin American market in 2006, with Brazil leading the way ( source ), as well as Movistar Chile and Argentina, with the launch of MSN Mobile ( source ). While this service is available in most of the region, it is a WAP based service that can be cumbersome. There are no available statistics that we know of for the penetration of this service, but we expect them to be very low. The deployment of 3G networks in the region can probably help operators provide a better user experience for this service, although given the limitations presented by a mostly prepaid customer base (~...