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...

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 iPhone launch, including TIM Brazil and Telecom Personal Argnetina. It is still early to evaluate results since the first launch (Telcel Mexico in July, Argentina and Chile in August) was only a few months ago, but it seems the rush from Telefonica Movistar to sell the iPhone might spoil the market. Moe on this in our next post ....

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 had talks with MSN but so far only Movistar Chile and Argentina have a formal agreement (see Movistar and Microsoft have created in Chile the first instant message community for mobile telephones ) for a WAP based solution. MSN is said to be looking at major markets (Mexico, Brazil) and going on a case by case basis, which means that any negotiation with America Movil and Telefonica Movistar will be done per country/operator. Talks between Latin American operators and MSN, however, have been going on for several years now and operators have become increasingly frustrated. Other portals (AOL...

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 services point to the relevance of a need for a call completion strategy in the region that focuses on different call scenarios as well as both calling party and called party. It'll be interesting to see how the service is received by subscribers. As we understand it, this service is automatic for all Movistar subscribers (Movistar to Movistar calls) with opt out option and a limit of 10 notifications once the subscriber's credit runs out. Telecom Personal also has mellamas which is basically the same service (to another Telecom personal number or a fixed number).

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...

"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 Movistar), Paraguay (CTI Movil) and recently, Brazil (Telemig Celular and Claro) announced the launch of their UMTS services this year. A year ago, AT&T Mobility in Puerto Rico became the first operator to launch commercial UMTS services in the Caribbean. Eva Benguigui, Senior Research Analyst Latin America with Informa Telecoms and Media, predicts, "Based on the eleven UMTS/HSPA network launches in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the many more to come in 2008, the number of UMTS/HSPA subscriptions in the region will reach 15.3 million by year end 2009." ...

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” with some form of data capability. The question that remains is, are users in Latin America ready for these services? How will operators add new users and make sure they will adopt the new services?

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 Launches 3G in Coastal Cities ). CTI’s sister operations in Uruguay and Paraguay will also launch 3G in the near future, in the cities of Colonia and Punta del Este (Uruguay) and Ciudad del Este and Encarnacion (Paraguay).