Tag Archives: Mexico

Iusacell confirms merger of Televisa-Iusacell has been rejected

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Iusacell has announced it has been notified by Mexico’s anti-trust watchdog the Federal Competition Commission (CFC) that its planned deal with Televisa has been rejected, Notimex reports. The five-member commission voted 3-2 against the partnership, Iusacell said.

In April 2011, Televisa agreed to invest USD 1.6 billion for a 50 percent stake in Iusacell. The deal was expected to provide money for Iusacell to expand its business and give Televisa, which also offers fixed-line voice and internet services, an entry into the mobile market.

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American Tower buys Pegaso PCS from Telefonica Mexico

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US mobile tower operator American Tower has acquired up to 2,500 towers from Telefonica’s Mexican subsidiary, Pegaso PCS. The purchase price reaches approximately $500 million USD (excluding taxes).

American Tower expects to complete the acquisition of a substantial majority of the towers during this year’s fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.

Nokia Siemens opens service delivery centre in Mexico

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Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has inaugurated a centre in Mexico to deliver remote services to operators across Latin America and worldwide.

The service delivery centre (SDC) will provide network design and planning as well as optimization and assurance for both networks and the services running over them. The facility joins NSN’s existing global network of SDCs for optimizing networks remotely for operators. The company’s four other SDCs are operating from Chennai and Noida (India), Lisbon (Portugal), and Shanghai (China).

The Mexico SDC will provide network planning and optimization services (NPO) to operators in Latin America and eventually extend these capabilities to other regions. The global network of five SDCs supports multi-technology, multi-vendor networks for operators. These centres support radio (2G, 3G and 4G technologies), transport, core and IP networks, as well as an increasing range of services, applications and devices.

Iusacell and Nextel end spectrum disputes

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Mexican mobile operators Iusacell and Nextel de Mexico have agreed to withdraw lawsuits filed over a 2010 government mobile spectrum auction. This move ends more than a year of legal battle, Dow Jones reports.

Nextel de Mexico reached an agreement with Grupo Iusacell to end litigation related to the auction, in which Nextel won a nationwide band of 30 MHz that it is using to develop its 3G network. Iusacell disputed the 2010 auction and took court action, claiming that the spectrum caps set by the antitrust regulator meant that Nextel obtained the spectrum unchallenged with the minimum bid.

Regulators defended the caps as a way of evening out the amount of mobile spectrum available to competitors, although the intention of attracting a fifth mobile operator was unsuccessful and another 30 MHz spectrum block remained unassigned. Mexico’s Communications and Transport Ministry welcomed the agreement, stating that it gives legal certainty to operators as they invest in their networks.

Telefonica builds R&D center in Mexico

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Telefonica has built a technology centre in Mexico. Overall investments in the project amounted to EUR 22.51 million, El Economista reports.

Located in the Ixtlahuaca Technology Park, the facility aims to strengthen Telefonica’s telecommunications infrastructure and prepare for the deployment of new services for consumers. The project was developed in partnership with Nokia Siemens Networks.

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Virgin authorized to launch MVNO in Mexico

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Virgin Mobile Latin America (VMLA) has received regulatory approval from Mexico’s Ministry of Communications and Transportation to provide wireless communications in Mexico as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO).

“We are very appreciative of the Ministry of Communications and Transportation and of the Federal Telecommunications Commission for their approval and support of our application,” said VMLA’s chairman Phil Wallace.

VMLA will begin service in Mexico approximately six months after it completes a wholesale agreement with one of Mexico’ mobile network operators. “By having our license in hand we expect our discussions with the operators will proceed along at a quicker pace,” Wallace said.

Virgin Mobile oriignally announced its plans to launch MVNOs in Latin America in June. Since then, the company has made progress towards its goal of beginning commercial operations in many countries, beginning in Chile in the first quarter of 2012. Last month VMLA announced that it had received regulatory approval from Chile’s Subsecretaria de Telecomunicaciones and that it had signed an agreement with a mobile network operator. As the Chile operation prepares for commercial launch, VMLA continues to make progress planning its expansion throughout Latin America over the next two years.

“The reaction we are experiencing from operators, regulators, retailers and potential partners across Latin America has been simply amazing. All our contacts are eager to see Virgin products in their markets,” said Peter Macnee, VMLA’s president and chief executive officer.

Telefonica considering selling assets in Brazil to cut debts

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Telefonica is considering selling assets that “underperform” to reduce debt and regain investors trust after sales in Spain slumped and growth in Brazil slowed, Bloomberg reports, citing Telefonica CFO Angel Vila.

The CFO ruled out selling Telefonica’s operations in Germany, Mexico and the Czech Republic, or its 9.7 percent stake in China Unicom. Telefonica is assessing its businesses to find non-core or underperforming assets that can be divested, Vila said at an industry conference in Barcelona. Telefonica recently reiterated its full-year financial and dividend forecasts, including sales growth of 1-4 percent over three years from an adjusted base of EUR 63.1 billion in 2010.

The company aims to lower its debt to between 2 and 2.5 times OIBDA. According to Vila, Telefonica would reconsider its dividend policy only if its debt rating, cut to BBB+ by Standard & Poor’s in August, leaves the triple B category. “We would not move beyond this BBB class territory unless there were unimaginable pressures that would put us beyond that. If that was going to be the case we would have to react,” Vila added.