LATAM Telecom

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 rest of the America Movil operations will be rushing to prepare for the iPhone launch, beginning with the largest markets: Brazil, Argentina and Colombia. Given this scenario, the other big players in the region, Vivo, Tim Brazil, Personal Argentina will have to come up with a strategy to counter the iPhone hype. This is a good opportunity for operators to revamp their messaging and data strategies. So far, the intense competition between operators in the region has consisted mainly of trying to outdo each other with the end result being a very standard offering, where subscribers cannot really...

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 work through exclusive deals such as AT&T in the USA. What about Latin America? We have heard rumors since the hype of the iPhone launch started earlier this year, that both America Movil and Telefonica were in talks with Apple. So far it seems that Apple is only willing to do a negotiation per country, which leaves the door open to different scenarios. According to Telecompaper , Claro is in talks for iPhone contract. Telcel Mexico officially addressed the issue in June this year through their spokesperson, Patricia Ramirez ( source ) where she stated the operator's inter...