Category Archives: Uncategorized

Colombia will tender mobile spectrum in 2015

October 22, 2014UncategorizedLatin Target

Colombia’s National Spectrum Agency (ANE) and the ICT Ministry have presented a draft bill for a new auction of spectrum for the provision of mobile broadband services in the country.

The government aims to award up to 20 MHz in the 900 MHz band as well as 5 MHz in the 1,900 MHz band. According to the tender conditions, the winning operators should deploy mobile broadband services in certain remote localities. The draft bill will be open for comments until 31 October. The government said it expects to award the spectrum in the second or third quarter of 2015.

Anatel in Brazil announces three more auctions this year

October 17, 2014UncategorizedLatin Target

Anatel, the National Telecommunications Agency in Brazil has announced three frequency auctions in the coming months, with the first to be an auction for orbital locations before 2014 is out.

Other auctions will be for frequencies in the 900 and 1.8 GHz bands (from 912.5 MHz to 915 MHz, from 957.5 to 960 MHz, from 1,740 MHz to 1,755 MHz and from 1,835 MHz to 1,850 MHz), previously used by Unicel. A third auction will be the remainders of frequencies in the 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz bands

Nextel Chile sold to consortium of investors

August 19, 2014Telecoms, UncategorizedLatin Target

NII Holdings has agreed to sell their subsidary, Nextel Chile to an international consortium of Argentine, UK and US investors for an undisclosed amount.

The buyers include Argentine media company Grupo Veintitres, UK investment fund ISM Capital and US fund Optimum Advisors. Nextel Chile said that the investors will take immediate control of the company. Nextel Chile president Estanislao Pena was confirmed in his position by the new ownership.

Nextel Chile has 60MHz of AWS spectrum and nearly 260,000 subscribers across the country.

According to previous reports, Argentine businessmen Matías Garfunkel and Sergio Szpolski, who have close ties with the Argentine government and own media group Grupo Veintitres, were also seeking to buy Nextel Argentina. NII Holdings decided to sell its Argentine subsidiary under a restructuring plan which included the sale of Nextel Peru.

Argentina Agrees Price Control on Prepaid Lines

August 7, 2014Telecoms, UncategorizedLatin Target

The government of Argentina has reached agreement with the country’s mobile operators to implement a mobile telephony plan for prepaid lines which will be added to the government’s price control initiative dubbed ‘Precios Cuidados’.

Prepaid lines will now receive one free number for calls and another free number to send SMS. The first block of 30 seconds will cost ARS 1.74 while the cost of SMS will be ARS 0.74. The plan will be revised by the country’s domestic trade secretary each three months.

The cellular operators involved in the initiative are Personal, Movistar, Claro and Nextel, who collectively control 61.59 million mobile lines.

Altice names Rallo as CEO Orange Dominicana

May 5, 2014Telecoms, UncategorizedLatin Target

Altice, which acquired Tricom and Orange in the Dominican Republic for approximately USD 1.8 billion, has named Ernest Rallo as CEO of Orange Dominicana, reports Diario Libre. Rallo held the position of vice president of the General Secretariat of the operator with responsibility for Human Resources, Risk Analysis, Security, Audit and Processes. Rallo has over 30 years experience in the telecommunications sector. Previously, Rallo served as Sales Director of Telmex and in managerial positions at Multimedia Sonatel (Senegal), TeleYemen (Yemen) and Orange Romania

America Movil sees slow growth in Q1

April 30, 2014UncategorizedLatin Target

Mexican operator, America Movil saw its growth slow in the first quarter, due to negative currency effects and the increased regulation in its home market.

Revenues were up 1.3 percent from a year ago to MXN 195.4 billion, and EBITDA rose 1.7 percent to MXN 64.9 billion. Excluding forex effects, the figures were up respectively 6.9 and 6.7 percent.

Net profit was hurt by increased financing costs, dropping 48.3 percent to MXN 13.9 billion or MXN 0.20 per share. The company spent MXN 19.1 billion on capital investments in the quarter, while also reducing debt by MXN 2.2 billion, buying back MXN 12.6 billion in shares and acquiring assets for MXN 1.4 billion. Net debt of MXN 440 billion was worth 1.6x annual EBITDA at the end of March.

America Movil finished the quarter with 272.2 million mobile customers, up by 2.3 million from three months earlier. The net additions included 1.4 million from the acquisition of Page Plus in the US and 769,000 new postpaid customers, as well as 980,000 disconnections of inactive customers in Latin America. The number of revenue-generating units in the fixed market rose by 1.2 million in the quarter, of which 571,000 in TV and 492,000 in broadband, to a total 70.7 million at the end of March.

Colombia’s DirecTV to launch 4G Internet

April 21, 2014UncategorizedLatin Target

DirecTV will launch 4G internet services in Colombia in the second half of this year.

Nicknamed ‘DirecTV Net’, the service will initially be available in the cities of Santa Marta, Cali and Barranquill according to Maria Elvira Restrepo, Vice President of the company. The cable tv firm expects to gradually expand its 4G internet services across Colombia, and plans to reach 57 of the country’s largest cities – including Palmira, Barrancabermeja, Chia, Montera and Riohacha – within the next five years.

DirecTV currently has 900,000 pay-TV subscribers in Colombia. In the Latin American region, DirecTV currently provides 4G services in Brazil and Argentina.