LATAM Telecom

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 the region will follow a similar strategy in 2009. Mr. José María Álvarez Pallete, General Manager of Telefónica Latinoamérica, stated last week at CEDE (V Congreso de la Confederación Española de Directivos y Ejecutivos) that the region will continue growing in subscribers and revenues (source Telesemana ), but he expects a slowdown in 2009, given the economic crisis. Mr. Álvarez Pallete, however, made it clear that this won't be a dramatic slowdown but rather a slower growth rate than previously expected and that Latin America is the area where the company expects to grow in the coming y...

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 whether or not to launch a new service. However, VAS managers are under increased pressure to raise ARPU and the effort required to launch new services will hardly be worth their time if they cannot show a significant contribution to the bottom line. At first glance, the business case for voice to text delivery of voice mail messages may seem difficult, in particular for Tier 2 and Tier X operators. The cost of transfering messages -mainly because of costs associated to ensuring the quality of transcription- makes it seem that this is a service that can only be offered to specific segments, such...

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 (~...