Tag Archives: VAS

America Movil launches new VAS in the form of IdeasMusik

Telecoms, , ,

America Movil has introduced its online music store dubbed ‘IdeasMusik’. The platform enables users to listen and download music content online. The service is provided in partnership with Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music and Emi Music. The IdeasMusik catalogue currently includes over 15 million songs. Negotiations with these companies lasted more than six months, said Marco Quatorze, director of value added services at America Movil and Telcel, in an interview with CNNExpansion.

Customers can opt for a weekly or monthly subscription, which will be charged to their Telcel or Telmex phone bill, to their credit card, or to IdeasMusik preloaded cards that can be acquired at Sears and Sanborns stores. For MXN 40 per week, IdeasMusik users can either download five songs or access unlimited streaming services. For MXN 75 per month users will receive unlimited streaming, while for a monthly fee of MXN 90 they will be able to download 20 songs. For MXN 150 per month, customers can access unlimited streaming and download 25 songs.

Quatorze also said that Telcel has seen over 10 million song downloads via its Ideas Streaming service launched in Mexico in February 2011. The IdeasMusik service is currently available in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, and will gradually be launched in the other 15 Latin American countries where America Movil operates.

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Millicom Quarterly Revenues Pass $1 Billion for First Time

Telecoms, , ,

Telecoms holding company, Millicom International has reported a 13% rise in its revenues to US$1,018 million, while EBITDA was up 16% to $484 million.

Mikael Grahne, President and CEO of Millicom, commented: “For the first time in Millicom’s history, we have exceeded $1 billion of revenues in a quarter. Our profitability remains strong with an EBITDA level of 47.5%.

“Within a maturing voice market, our strategy aims at developing value-added services (VAS) which we see as the next growth opportunity. In Latin America we have increasingly focused on innovation and on ARPU stabilization, favoring 3G penetration over the retention of low ARPU voice customers. In Africa we are focusing on both penetration and innovation. We are pleased with the execution of this strategy and our Q3 results confirm its effectiveness: we are getting closer to a stage of ARPU stabilization with a 4.1% decline year-on-year in Q3 (excluding the country mix impact), VAS now contribute 23.3% of recurring revenues, we have 1.5 million customers using 3G data services in Latin America, up 18% over Q2, and our local currency revenue growth reached 11.7%, the highest level since the beginning of 2009.

“We maintain our commitment to the base business as shown by the growth in voice revenues of 10% year-on-year in Q3, up from 7% in Q2 and 5% in Q1. Our strong focus on branding, smart pricing and distribution has been instrumental in this achievement, allowing us to resist commoditization.

All data includes the full consolidation of Honduras from July 1, 2010. Quarterly historical data has been restated for the full consolidation of Honduras

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Claro Brazil to launch application store in H2

Uncategorized, ,

Claro Brazil aims to launch in the second half its own mobile application shop in the second half. This is a new project and separate from the previously announced plan to create a widget store using the Plaza platform from Qualcomm.

America Movil, the parent company, is currently negotiating for a solution provider. According to the director of value added services (VAS) at Claro, Fiamma Zariffe, the store will be agnostic in terms of operating systems, offering diverse applications for mobile platforms.