The interested firms were DirecTV, Avantel, ETB, Claro, Telefónica and a consortium of companies led by Mexico’s Azteca 4G. Of note was the  absence of applications from Tigo and UNE EPM Telecomunicaciones which are in the process of merging operations. Colombia will auction eight licenses in the 1.7/2.1 GHz (AWS), 1.9 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands. A total of 225 megahertz will be offered.

UNE EPM, Tigo merger—The Medellín City Council has approved the transformation of UNE EPM Telecomunicaciones shareholding, with 11 votes in favor, nine against and one abstention. This gives the green light to the UNE EPM and Tigo merger, which has been in negotiations for eight months already.

Telefónica’s first quarter—Brazil has become Telefónica’s largest market by revenue with year-on-year growth rates of +3% in local currency, while profitability improved in Spain for the second consecutive quarter. The Spanish telecom group released its first quarter results on May 8, noting a 9% drop in revenue, compared to the same quarter last year, to €14.141 billion. The group’s operating income dropped 18% to €2.07 billion. For the second consecutive quarter, Latin America generated more than 50% of Telefónica’s consolidated revenue.

Telefónica managed 315.7 million accesses at the end of March, up 2% year-on-year driven by sustained growth in mobile contracts, especially for smartphones. Mobile accesses stood at 247.3 million at the end of the quarter (+3% year-on-year) with the contract segment continuing to drive the company’s commercial activity.

Smartphones on the rise—According to Pyramid Research, emerging markets will generate 58% of smartphone sales in 2012-2017. The Latin American region will experience a handset revenue compound annual growth rate of 7.9% from 2012 to 2017, primarily aided by a rising handset average selling price (ASP). The region’s share of global handset revenue will expand to approximately 8% by 2017.

Barriers for mobility, cloud, social and big data
Telecommunications infrastructure and legacy systems have been barriers to the adoption of mobility solutions, cloud computing, social tools and big data in Brazil. In an interview with RCR Wireless News during the Impact 2013 event, Ana Paula Assis, vice president for IBM Software, said that knowledge of new technologies in these areas is well disseminated among Brazilian companies.

According to Assis, the adoption of these technologies does not just depend on a company’s size or segment but with their ability to adapt what they already have and their ability to invest. “All industries are seeking to somehow combine mobility, cloud, big data and collaboration to benefit their customers,” she said.

>>> Check out pictures from Impact 2013.

Editor’s Note: IBM provided travel costs to attend its Impact 2013 in Las Vegas.

More news from Latin America

• Telefónica Digital and AirWatch announced a partnership on security mobile device management (SMDM). The solution is now available to Telefónica customers in Argentina, Spain, the Czech Republic, and it will soon be available in Germany, Chile and Peru.
• Brazil’s pay-TV subscribers increased 3.38% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, reaching 16.8 million customers.

Be sure not to miss what’s happening in Latin America’s wireless markets. Check out RCR Wireless News wrap ups.

In deploying the LTE network, Oi said it has a radio access network sharing agreement with rival TIM, which James Meaney, Oi’s COO, said will reduce total investment costs by $100 million to a total of $400 million.

Oi’s LTE offer will focus on 3G clients and heavy data users. During a press conference, Meaney admitted that the prices for the services are high, but that “Oi wants to differentiate by packing 4G, 3G, Wi-Fi, fixed broadband services together to leverage more value to the user.”

Although one of the goals of the LTE launch was to meet data demand during the FIFA World Cup and Confederations Cup, Luis Alveirinho, director of engineering at Oi, said that for the Confederation Cup, which starts in June, neither Oi or any other carrier have international roaming deals with foreign telecom operators to operate in the LTE range. “We have for 3G services and for the World Cup we certainly will have these agreements,” he said.

European countries are currently using a mix of 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum bands for LTE coverage, while carriers in the United States are using various bands across the 700 MHz, 850 MHz, 1.7/2.1 GHz, 1.9 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands.

Brazilian carriers that bought spectrum licenses in the 2.5 GHz frequency band at auction last June have until April to cover all the offices of the Confederations Cup, and by December they must also cover the branches and sub-offices of the 2014 World Cup.

Regarding potential expansion into other large markets such as São Paulo, Meaney said that Oi will meet government regulator Anatel requirements, but the carrier was anticipating a launch.

América Móvil’s Brazilian unit Claro, was the first carrier to launch LTE in the country. Claro announced last December the availability of LTE services in the cities of Recife, Campos do Jordão (SP), Paraty and Buzios (RJ). Earlier this month, Claro expanded LTE services to five more cities.

Telefónica’s Vivo is set to announce the launch of LTE services on April 30. TIM has yet to release details about when it plans to roll out LTE services, however according to Anatel’s rules all carriers have until April 30 to deploy LTE networks.

As for vendors,  Oi picked Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks. Vivo and Claro have chosen Ericsson and Huawei to supply their LTE networks, while TIM tapped Ericsson, Huawei and NSN as vendors.

Editor’s Note: Oi provided travel costs to attend its press conference in Rio de Janeiro.

According to Telebrasil, the Brazilian Association of Telecommunications, private providers invested more than U.S.$142 billion (R$284 billion) over the past 15 years, including grant payments. By today’s standards, this investment represents about U.S.$200 billion (R$400 billion). “All this investment over the years has enabled a rapid growth in the number of users, which reached a total of 343 million, considering the services of fixed and mobile telephony, broadband and pay TV,” stated TeleBrasil.

Analysys Mason released new research predicting that telecom retail revenue in Latin America will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.3% between 2012 and 2017. Mobile services will account for about 80% of this growth during the forecast period—increased mobile handset data, and mobile broadband service usage will boost mobile retail revenue at a 4.8% CAGR, while fixed retail revenue will grow at a 1.4% CAGR. The main contributors to revenue growth during 2012–2017 will be mobile broadband (growing at a CAGR of 15.8%), mobile handset data (a CAGR of 12.6%) and fixed broadband (6.6%).

In a statement, Pablo Iacopino,  Analysys Mason analyst, said that the relative value of the Latin American telecom market is increasing as a result of higher revenue growth compared to developed markets. He explained that Brazil is the largest telecom market in Latam in terms of telecom retail revenue, generating U.S.$62 billion in 2012, and it is the fourth-largest market in the world after the U.S., China and Japan.

Latam LTE road map update
Sixteen LTE networks have been launched commercially in nine countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (Antigua-Barbuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Paraguay, Puerto Rico and Uruguay), according to the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA). Globally, 156 carriers have launched commercial LTE services in 67 countries with 98 commercial launches happening in the past year. The GSA predicts that by the end of the year, there will be 244 commercial LTE networks operating in 87 countries.

In Chile, the carrier Entel announced it has selected Ericsson as the sole supplier of its 4G/LTE network, and the companies expanded their partnership for Entel’s 2G and 3G networks. This includes the multi-standard radio access network, Evolved Packet Core with Evolved Packet Gateway on the SSR 8000 family of Smart Services Routers, operation and support system, and backhaul transport design. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

In Brazil, the telecommunications research and development institution CPqD unveiled Latin America’s first laboratory for testing and measuring LTE technology for the 450MHz frequency.

CPqD has been working on using LTE technology in the 450 MHz band for a while. In a March 2012 interview with RCR Wireless News, Fabrício Lira Figueiredo, wireless technologies manager at CPqD, said that the firm was testing the technology.

While telecom operators are in the beginning stages of deploying LTE networks in Brazil and Chile, government telecom agencies in other Latin American countries still have a lot of work to do. In Peru, the auction that will allow LTE network deployment is expected to take place in July. The Agency for Promotion of Private Investment (ProInversión) will allocate two blocks in the bands of 1,710 to 1,770 MHz and 2,110 to 2,170 MHz, also known as the AWS band.

More Latin American numbers
Brazil’s telecom regulator Anatel forecasts that the country will jump from its current 263.04 million connections to 1 billion by 2018, driven by data and machine-to-machine accesses. The prediction was made by Bruno Ramos, Anatel’s mobile, data and satellite services VP, during last week’s TM Forum Latin America Summit.

Anatel’s latest report shows that at the end of February, mobile penetration reached 133.25%. Telefónica’s Vivo led with a 28.83% market share, followed by TIM (26.88%), Claro (25.12%) and Oi (18.83%). Although 2G GSM still accounts for the majority of lines (72.31%), WCDMA achieved a 22.4% market share. Mobile broadband terminals totaled 65.68 million.

In Ecuador, Fabian Jaramillo, from the country’s superintendence of telecommunication, said that mobile lines had achieved 111%  penetration. There are 17.237 million mobile lines for the country’s population of 15.542 million. Claro holds the biggest market share, owning 69% of all the mobile lines. Claro is followed by Movistar with 29% and the state-owned company CNT EP with 2%. “The monopoly is a concern, that’s why Claro was named a dominant player years ago,” Jaramillo said.

In Chile, the country’s telecom watchdog agency announced that Internet access penetration increased from 30% to 41% in the past 12 months, achieving a total of 5 million connections. Smartphones drove the increase in mobile Internet accesses, and they currently account for 77% of total mobile navigation.

More Latin American news:

• Mexico’s lower house of congress passed a package of sweeping reforms for the telecommunications sector. The bill passed 414 to 50 with eight abstentions. The reform package is designed to promote competition in the telecom market. The country’s telecom sector is currently controlled by América Móvil, the leader in both mobile and land lines, and Grupo Televisa.
• Vivo, Brazil’s unit of Telefónica, and the Medical School Foundation have joined together to develop eHealth solutions.
• Tigo announced it is offering mobile access to Facebook, regardless of mobile handset type, using its Facebook for SIM solution provided by Gemalto’s embedded software application. Tigo has 6.3 million subscribers.
• Digicel announced its intention to launch private placement of U.S.$250 million of 6.0% senior notes due in 2021. Digicel previously issued U.S.$1 billion of 6.0% senior notes due in 2021 earlier this year.

Be sure not to miss what’s going on across wireless Latin American market. Check out RCR Wireless News wrap ups.

The vendor made a global agreement with the second largest telecom operator in Latin America, in early 2012. Since then, Ceragon has provided solutions to Telefónica’s units in Mexico, Venezuela, Panama and Chile.

In an interview with RCR Wireless News, Billy Cain, president of Ceragon Latin America, noted that since the Telefónica agreement was made, Ceragon has received more than U.S.$20 million in orders.

Cain said that the firm expects to extend the agreement with Telefónica to other countries. Cain noted that the huge demand comes more from carriers’ need to improve capacity than from LTE deployments, but he highlighted that the Ceragon solutions that have been deployed are LTE-ready.

“The largest opportunity comes from increasing capacity requirements, including LTE and 3G. Capacity requirements are much bigger now than few years ago,” Cain said.

Cain said that Latin America has played an important role for Ceragon’s business. The region’s revenues have increased over the last few years and are expected to continue to grow in 2013, according to Cain. “There are a lot of opportunities. We are working with almost all the large telecom operators in the region. A lot of carriers are refreshing their backhauls to become ready for more capacity,” he said.

In July, Chile’s telecom regulatory agency Subtel announced that carriers paid about $12.26 million for LTE licenses. Subtel had made 120 megahertz in the 2.6 GHz band available for bidding, and Claro, Movistar and Entel were granted the right to deploy the LTE in Chile. Subtel expects the carriers to invest more than $233.45 million combined.

According to the rules set by Subtel, the telecom operators have 12 months starting from when the LTE licenses were awarded in July to deploy their networks.

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The carriers have already chosen LTE vendors. América Móvil’s Chilean unit, Claro, and Telefónica’s local wireless operator, Movistar, have chosen Nokia Siemens Networks as their LTE providers. The Chilean Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Entel) has tapped Ericsson to deploy this new generation of telecommunications.

The first call made between the Subtel leader and Claro’s CEO marks the start of the LTE trial phase. As part of the trial, 100 users located in country’s capital of Santiago will test the service and give feedback to the operator.

Claro said the LTE launch is part of the carrier’s U.S.$500 million annual investment plan. The amount is aimed at improving Claro’s coverage, signaling and infrastructure.

Claro also told local papers that it is interested in sharing infrastructure, as the company recently did in Brazil. However, Muñoz said there is no signed agreement yet.

Four Brazilian carriers have announced infrastructure sharing agreements for the deployment of LTE networks. TIM and Oi made a deal to share telecom infrastructure. Vivo and Claro have also signed a memorandum of understanding to share telecom infrastructure, such as cell sites, backbone and backhaul. One major difference between the two deals is that Vivo and Claro, the two largest telecom groups in Latin America, also included 3G networks in their sharing agreement.

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As noted by Convergência Digital, RCR Wireless syndicate partner, Claro benefits the most from the deal as Vivo owns the largest 3G network in Brazil. Vivo, Telefónica’s Brazilian unit, covers 3,100 municipalities with 3G, while Claro covers 1,119 (TIM covers 593, and Oi covers 612), according to the latest data from the consulting firm Teleco.

The TIM and Oi deal is limited to physical asset sharing (towers and equipment) for LTE networks in the 2.5 GHz spectrum band.

Although the carriers have announced the agreements, infrastructure sharing for LTE still has to be approved by telecom watchdog agency, Anatel. The telecom regulator also needs to release definitions regarding spectrum frequency band sharing.

According to the telecom union SindiTelebrasil, almost 9,566 new licenses will be required to install antennas to provide LTE in the 12 cities that will host World Cup 2014 matches. A SindiTelebrasil survey shows that it will be necessary to introduce an average of 30 radio base stations per day, which will be a huge challenge considering current laws that hinder the expansion of services.

Vivo and Claro have chosen Ericsson and Huawei to supply their LTE networks. TIM tapped Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks as vendors, and Oi picked Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks.

Brazilian carriers that bought spectrum licenses in the 2.5 GHz frequency band at auction in June have until April to cover all the offices of the Confederations Cup, and by December 2013, they must also cover the branches and sub-offices of the 2014 World Cup. Of the four carriers who received license — Telefónica’s Vivo, América Móvil’s Claro, Oi and Telecom Italia’s TIM — so far only Claro has launched commercial LTE services.

According to the latest count by the industry association 4G Americas, the Latin American region now has 14 commercial LTE networks in nine countries. The first four commercial LTE networks in Latin America and the Caribbean were deployed at the end of 2011.

In its latest worldwide quarterly mobile phone tracker report, IDC noted that successful rollout of LTE networks in Brazil is key to the country’s smartphone market growth.

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In addition to the carriers’ efforts, Brazil’s government is working to speed up deployments. Last week, the Brazilian telecom regulator Anatel demanded microwave (MMDS) pay-TV providers empty the 2510 MHz to 2570 MHz and 2630 MHz to 2690 MHz bands, which will be used for LTE.

Initially, MMDS providers had until June 30 to empty the bands, but they have now been asked to leave them by April 12. The measure was taken specifically with the six FIFA Confederations Cup host cities in mind.

In a statement, Anatel noted its concerns over the LTE schedule. MMDS operators that fail to release the spectrum in these cities before the deadline could have their licenses suspended and their base stations closed.

Anatel is also speeding up the use of the 700 MHz spectrum band for LTE. Anatel got the green light to debate the matter in February, when the Brazilian Ministry of Communications (Minicom) published its decision in the official gazette (Diário Oficial) to allow the allocation of the 700 MHz spectrum band for LTE mobile broadband. Currently, the 700 MHz spectrum is allocated for analog television in Brazil.

Last week, Anatel published two draft regulations for public comment regarding the use of radio frequency from 698 MHz to 806 MHz. Anatel’s main concern is to avoid interference in TV broadcasts from the use of the 700 MHz for LTE. Anatel also noted that phone companies may only use this band after pledging to bear part of the relocation costs.

According to the latest count by the industry association 4G Americas, the Latin American region now has 14 commercial LTE networks in nine countries. The first four commercial LTE networks in Latin America and the Caribbean were deployed at the end of 2011.

In its latest worldwide quarterly mobile phone tracker report, IDC noted that successful rollout of LTE networks in Brazil is key to the country’s smartphone market growth.

Brazil’s smartphone market is rising, driven by a confluence of circumstances, such as tax breaks for vendors that create jobs via local mobile phone production. In addition, wireless service providers are offering greater subsidies to drive smartphone sales with an eye on higher data revenue streams in the future.

]]> http://www.rcrwireless.com/americas/20130305/carriers/update-brazils-lte-anatel-asks-mmds-empty-2-5-ghz-speeds-700-mhz/feed/ 1 http://www.rcrwireless.com/americas/20130227/carriers/lte-paraguay-totaled-14-networks-9-countries/ http://www.rcrwireless.com/americas/20130227/carriers/lte-paraguay-totaled-14-networks-9-countries/#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:22:06 +0000 Roberta Prescott http://www.rcrwireless.com/americas/?p=11863 Latin America now has 14 commercial LTE networks in nine countries, according to the latest count by the industry association 4G Americas. Last week it was Paraguay’s turn. The state-owned operator Copaco launched its LTE network, and the service is currently available in the capital Asuncion and the surrounding area.

Copaco has deployed 109 radio bases throughout Paraguay, including 89 in the Asuncion metropolitan area, one in Pilar, five in Encarnacion and 14 in Ciudad del Este.

The first four commercial LTE networks in Latin America and the Caribbean were deployed at the end of 2011.

According to Erasmo Rojas, 4G Americas director of Latin America and the Caribbean, these LTE networks, coupled with 51 commercial HSPA+ mobile broadband networks in the region, reflect hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in the economy; they offer vast opportunities for mobile Internet connectivity and new user experiences for both enterprises and consumers.

The 14 commercial LTE networks are located in Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Brazil (two), Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Paraguay (two), Puerto Rico (four) and Uruguay.

4G Americas forecasts there will be 40 commercial LTE networks by 2015, and Informa Telecoms & Media expects 93,000 LTE connections at end of 2012.

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TIM actually bought the platform at the end of 2009 with the main goal of conducting drive tests, a method of measuring and assessing mobile radio networks’ coverage, capacity and quality of service. The solution was installed in 2010, with TIM using a cloud-based system. However, the carrier had to access data stored in the United States, which over time became an issue because of delays in accessing the data.

After some time TIM decided to expand the solution by adding new features to correlate several different types of inputs and understand what was happening with end users. “Since 2010, we have increased our customer base,” said Pedro Direne, service quality assurance operations manager at TIM Brasil.

The increase in complexity led TIM to upgrade the platform. “Our first move was to use a local server. We have acquired the newest software version and added more features, related to statistics and indicators,” Direne said.

Currently, the ActixOne solution integrates and visualizes multiple data sources and KPIs in one centralized platform. According to Direne, this will enable TIM Brasil to improve engineering efficiency and network quality significantly.

Marcelo Alvarenga, Latin America sales director for Actix, explained that the solution combines data sources such as network coverage data, network parameters, KPIs, customer care records, alarms, trouble tickets, benchmarking and drive test data into a single view providing a clear picture of the network.

According to Direne, the main benefit of the solution is that now employees can find all they need in one place, whereas before they needed to check five different platforms to get information. “The ActixOne platform offers an end-to-end solution for the RAN. By integrating data from multiple sources into one view, we can quickly understand what is happening on our network and where we need to target resources and investment, driving efficiency in our engineering efforts and ensuring network performance delivers a high quality experience for our subscribers,” he said.

Moving out of the cloud

Although cloud computing is a growing trend, TIM noted improvements as it moved out of the cloud-based system in the United States.

“It was impractical to traffic a huge amount of data on the network. Although the cloud is very productive, there’s a bottleneck in the vast amount of data in transit,” said Alvarenga. “Today it processes about 100 gigabytes of data every day, while in the cloud, it was about 15 gigabytes and 20 gigabytes. To get a better processing capacity was one of the main reasons to skip the cloud.”

TIM did not disclose how much it invested in the changes.

Looking at LTE deployments, Direne said that TIM is evaluating adopting ActixOne for its LTE networks. “We are already talking about how to add LTE features,” he said. 

Actix in Latin America

Actix said the agreement reflects its continued growth in Latin America and follows the announcement of record sales in the region in 2012. The company believes that the complex Latin American mobile landscape has generated a great deal of interest from operators in the region that are under pressure to get the most out of their investment.

Alvarenga noted that Actix’ revenue grew about 80% in the region last year. The company believes that there are more opportunities to come as 3G networks increase. Currently, about 75% of Actix customers use the company’s platform for 2G networks.

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However, according to Anderson A. André, Cisco Systems operations director for the service provider segment, the increase in LTE connections will boost the growth of mobile data traffic, since LTE users tend to consume more. In fact, video streaming is set to make up the most traffic.

“In Brazil, by 2017, about 5% of total connections will be LTE, but these 5% will be responsible for 30% of mobile data traffic,” André said.

The move toward LTE is one of the trends expected in coming years. In addition to the growth of more advanced telecom networks, Latin American mobile data traffic is expected to increase 13-fold from 2012 to 2017.

The next question is how carriers will prepare to meet the growing video and data demand. André believes that they will choose to offload 3G and LTE traffic with W-Fi equipment.

“They would prefer to use Wi-Fi networks because it is cheaper than other options [femtocells, DAS],” André said.

According to Cisco’s Virtual Networking Index, 27% of all traffic in Brazil will be offloaded by 2017, and 90% of mobile data traffic from portable devices will be via W-Fi. “Operators are building their Wi-Fi networks as they install their cellular antennas,” he said.

In addition to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index, IDC released a survey about the broadband landscape. According to the consultant firm, by 2016, Brazil might achieve 39.2 million broadband connections, 31.5% of which will be mobile. Also, of fixed line connections, 69.3% will have speeds faster than 2.0 Mbps.