LATAM Telecom

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 that improve the user experience [1] . Acording to M:Metrics, the iPhone is already the most popular device for accessing news and information on the mobile Web [2] : 85 percent of iPhone users browse the mobile Web 30.9 percent of iPhone owners watched mobile TV or video, versus a 4.6 market average, and more than double the rate for all smartphone users. Usage of social networking is also popular among iPhone users: 49.7 percent accessed a social networking site in January, nearly twelve times the market average. Improving the user experience can increase voicemail usage, which should reflec...

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 the 3G launch of Entel PCS in December 2006. Since then, several America Movil and Telefonica Movistar properties followed aggressively during 2007, as well as Telecom Personal in Argentina. This is all good news, as the building of infrastructure was done in a relatively short period of time. However, as we have mentioned in previous posts (see posts 1 , 2 and 3 ), we have yet to see what this means for the evolution of VAS services in the region. Operators in the region have launched a number of services in the last couple of years but we have yet to see how MMS, Ring Back...