LATAM Telecom

From Reuters, a little bit more information though basically the same we reported earlier today: http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0720230520080507 America Movil to sell iPhone across Latin America By Chris Aspin MEXICO CITY, May 7 (Reuters) - America Movil (AMXL.MX: Quote , Profile , Research ) said on Wednesday it would sell Apple Inc's (AAPL.O: Quote , Profile , Research ) iPhone across Latin America this year, a deal that could extend its lead in the region over Telefonica (TEF.MC: Quote , Profile , Research ). Mexico-based America Movil, which operates in 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the United States, did not disclose financial details. It did not say if it was an exclusive accord.

News sources in Brazil today confirm that Mexican Telephony group America Movil officially announced that they were selected to distribute the iPhone in Latin America, including Brazil. The news does not provide a launch date but confirms that the iPhone will be available in Latin America in 2008 ( iPhone should arrive to Brazil in 2008 , May 7 2008).

Big news from several sources including Cellular News : In a very short statement, Vodafone announced that it has secured an agreement to launch Apple's iPhone in ten countries. "Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia , the Czech Republic , Egypt , Greece , Italy , India , Portugal , New Zealand , South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network." Interestingly, TIM Italia also announced that they will offer the iPhone, making that country the first to offer the handset with multiple operators. We are still waiting for the official announcement regarding Latin America. With the Vodafone agreement in multiple countries, which apparently Apple was hesitant to do, we can now expect something similar from America Movil and Telcel. America Movil has 16 operations in the region including the largest operator in Latin America, Telcel Mexico. Neither TIM, Vodafone or the last announcement before these two, Rogers Canada, have g...

It has been almost a year since the launch of the iPhone in the USA and only a few months since its introduction to the European maret. In this short period of time we have seen AT&T and Apple play with the pricing of the handset. Pricing for the service itself has not changed except for an additional package not offered in the beginning. In contrast, the European market sales of the device have not lived to expectations which shouldn't be surprising considering the price of the handset. The US and European markets offer interesting lessons for pricing the iPhone in Latin America: Both Apple and AT&T claim that the iPhone is selling in the U.S. up to expectations but overseas is a different matter . Everything seems to indicate the price is too high for the European market. Latin America is a low ARPU region but end users do not hesitate to buy high end devices. However, pricing the handset higher than a laptop is probably a big mistake. The number of users who are willing...

The big news this week was that Rogers finally made an official announcement that they will have the iPhone exclusive in Canada (from Cellular News ). This is not news and apparently even though the company is not yet ready to give a launch date, they had to yield to the pressure since it was known they had been selected by Apple a while ago. The company made a brief statement through Ted Rogers, President and CEO: "We're thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year. We can't tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned." This makes it official although he did not give any indication as to launch date. We are now wondering when we will hear from Latin American operators. Last time we checked, the battle was on between Telefonica and America Movil for the exclusivity in the region, with strong rumors for both of them. I am inclined to think it will be America Movil, or at least Telcel for Mexico, given the si...

This week we reported on the strong rumors surruounding the launch of a 3G version of the iPhone. Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg was quoted by several sources stating that an iPhone capable of connecting to faster, "3G" mobile networks is coming "in 60 days." Just yesterday, I found a retraction from Mr. Mossberg in the Thursday edition of FierceWireless newsletter. The whole incident is hysterically funny with bloggers like Peter Kafka from the Silicon Alley Insider using the following headline: Mossberg: I Have No Idea When 3G iPhone Is Coming, And I Don't Care. However, Mossberg's crappy attitude and immediate disclaimer say more about the whole situation than his actual statements. Reading between the lines and knowing how Apple reacts when they believe their trade secrets are leaked, it coudn't surpise me that Mr. Mossberg had received a cease and desist or something to that effect from Apple's lawyers. We still believe the 3...

From Yahoo! News ( link ) we hear that Apple is expected to launch a high-speed wireless version of iPhone in the second quarter and produce as many as 8 million of the devices in the third quarter, according to Bank of America. "Our latest channel checks point to a significant production build of a 3G iPhone beginning in the month of June after an initial small build in May," said Bank of America analyst Scott Craig. As usual, no word from Apple.