BROWSING: Americas

A consortium made up of Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca and Tendai won a bid to install and operate a fiber optic network covering nearly 80% of Peru. The National Fiber Optic Backbone grant consists of the design, deployment and operation of a 13,000-kilometer fiber...

Peru's regulatory agency OSIPTEL released two proposals over the past week affecting the telecom environment. The first proposal states that telecommunication operators should raise the minimum guaranteed connection speed for fixed and mobile Internet. The minimum speed should not be less than 40% of the...

Despite a recent negative antitrust ruling, Vivo, the Brazilian unit of Spanish Telefónica, views 2013 as a good year. The carrier focused on increasing its postpaid base and encouraging data usage (the MultiVivo offering is one example). In Brazil's LTE space, Vivo has the...

Brazil's antitrust regulator has issued a negative assessment of Telefónica's recent move to bolster its stake in the Telco holding company that owns about 22% of Telecom Italia, the company that controls Brazilian carrier TIM. By increasing its stake, Telefónica will effectively take control of the heavily indebted Italian...

LTE services are growing across Latin America. Following launches in other countries, Movistar Peru announced it will commercially launch its LTE services on Jan. 2. The service will initially be available in seven districts within the Lima region. Movistar Peru named its LTE service...

When Spain-based Telefónica announced plans to bolster its stake in the Telco holding company, which controls about 22% of Telecom Italia, it started a huge discussion in Brazil and Argentina's telecom markets about what would happen to TIM in Brazil and Telecom Argentina, which are both...

Brazilian telecom operator Vivo announced plans to expand its fiber optic network across state capitals of Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Brasília, Salvador and Porto Alegre. The carrier, which is controlled by Spanish group Telefónica, said the initiative is part of its plans to...

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. At the end of August, I had the pleasure to take part in a keynote panel...

Cisco has opened a center of innovation in Rio de Janeiro. The center will integrate Cisco’s portfolio with technology from local players to create solutions that meet the needs of the Brazilian market. During the ceremony, Robert Lloyd, Cisco’s president for development and sales,...

Recent shifts in how companies are buying customer relationship management software illustrate the speed with which mobile apps are changing the enterprise IT landscape. Increasingly, many enterprises see mobile- and cloud-based CRM apps playing a

The U.S. espionage scandal has touched Brazil. Citing documents leaked by Edward Snowden, Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported that the United States maintained a satellite spy base in Brazil, the only one in Latin America, until at least 2002. The article, which was published on...

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. After many delays, the long-awaited "4G" auction in Colombia took place in June. A total of...

Five telecom operators have been granted licenses to deploy LTE services in Colombia. The Ministry of Information Technology and Communications (Mintic) awarded five LTE licences for a total of $401 million. Avantel, ETB/Tigo and Movistar were awarded frequency bands in the 1.7/2.1 GHz (AWS—advanced wireless...

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace. Over the past two years, cloud computing services have moved firmly into the mainstream for many enterprises. As well as...

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Analyst Angle section. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. What’s happening? The increasing interest in "4G" technology in Latin America was clearly seen at Informa...

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace. A new trinity is on the rise: Mobility, cloud computing and social media are set to become inextricably linked over...

The Brazilian pay-TV services market has been growing at an annual rate of over 30% in terms of subscribers in the past two years. This comes from the low penetration of the service

Spend a week in Barcelona, Spain, at the Mobile World Congress event, and you will come back home with a lot of intriguing ideas. You can be overwhelmed by the plethora of new, elegant, sleek tablets, smartphones and the like,

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace. Although the recent Pew Research Center study, entitled The Explosion in Mobile Audiences and a Close Look at What It Means...

A new report from Arieso shows that throughout Latin America, network operators are experiencing a "perfect storm." According to the  report, there are substantial growth rates for mobile data consumption in Latin America, although most networks have been designed and optimized only for voice. Follow...

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. With smart devices taking the center stage at the first industry event of 2013, CES in...

Mobile commerce in Brazil is rising. Purchases made from tablets and smartphones doubled in 2012, reaching 10% of total e-commerce sales, according a survey conducted by the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (Camara-e.net) with its members of the retail committee. Follow RCR Wireless News—Americas on Twitter, Facebook and subscribe to...

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. The London Olympic Games were eagerly anticipated by the telecom sector; it was the first Olympic Games...

Brazilian carrier Oi has launched IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) and broadband services with speeds up to 200 Mbps based on its fiber to the home (FTTH) network. When Oi named Alcatel-Lucent and Microsoft as its IPTV vendors in July, the carrier said it was expecting to...