LATAM Telecom

America Movil and Telefonica are the two giant competitors with presence in most of the region. However, there are other players in Latin America who hold up their own, such as Telecom Personal Argentina, TIM Brazil, Entel PCS and of course the Millicom group, who has become the third largest in the region and actually is the market leader in several of the countries it operates. Operators like Personal Argentina, TIM Brazil and Entel PCS have positioned themselves as leaders and innovators with new services and with a larger percentage of postpaid customers than the average. Their client mix also has a higher ARPU than its competitors. In other words, they have traditionally been the operators who targets the ideal demographic group for the iPhone. It will be interesting to see how they respond, given the fact that in just one year the iPhone has launched in several countries, the learning curve is not as steep as it was for operators like Verizon Wireless and Sprint in the USA.

Yesterday Telefonica confirmed it finally reached an agreement with Apple to distribute the iPhone in 16 countries, including its operations in all of Latin America except for Mexico. This confirms the rumors that America Movil did not have exclusive rights, and now the iPhone will be available in several countries by two operators. Italy was the first country to have this type of agreement. Telefonica already sells the phone in the UK and Ireland through its O2 unit, where it has exclusive distribution rights. Now, it will add the Czech Republic, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. Out of these countries, only Venezuela was not included in the America Movil agreement since it has no presence in that country. In Venezuela, Telefonica is the largest operator. Note by Reuters and other sources.

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...