With increased competition in the telecommunications market, Latin American carriers should be worried about improving customer experience. According to James M. Artimez, Accedian Networks’ vice president of sales for Latin America, carriers should be proactive instead of waiting for telecom regulators to punish them for poor quality service. In a video interview with RCR Wireless News, Artimez said that carriers must identify problems and solve issues before users complain or watchdogs take drastic measures.
Artimez noted that telecom regulators are “no longer afraid” to punish carriers for quality problems after the Brazilian watchdog agency, Anatel, banned TIM, Claro and Oi from selling new lines last year. In addition, with the FIFA World Cup games around the corner, he claimed that roaming issues, such as problems with connectivity, must be solved.
Oi’s Q2 2013: Brazil’s Oi reported a loss of $54 million in the second quarter of 2013, compared to a profit of $148.48 million in the same period of 2012, and a net income of $112.11 million in the previous quarter of 2013. The operator explained that this performance was a result of lower EBITDA and higher interest expenses in the quarter due to the devaluation of the real and rising interest rates. As part of a series of announcements made by the CEO of Oi, Zeinal Bava, the company decided to lower its level of investment and reduce the previously announced dividend payments by 75%.
The carrier’s net revenue totaled R$7.1 billion, up 2.4% compared to the same period last year, driven by the expansion of pay TV and broadband in the residential segment, and higher revenues from data and IT in the corporate segment. Net service revenues, excluding equipment, totaled R$6.9 billion, an increase of R$173 million (+2.6%) compared with the same period last year.
Claro’s LTE in Chile: In an interview with Signals Telecom News, Vady Guerra, director of products and strategy at Claro Chile, said that the carrier aims to achieve 20,000 LTE clients this year with an average revenue per user of up to $120. According to Guerra, the fact that Claro launched its LTE services in advance of the rest of the market helped the carrier to take leadership.
More news from the Latin American region:
- The Mexican mobile market ARPU during the second quarter of 2013 was $13, a drop averaging 6% so far this year in the context of medium-term recovery.
- Ecuador’s telecommunications minister, Jaime Guerrero Ruiz, reported that the country will begin to negotiate with Movistar and Claro to award 30 megahertz of additional spectrum for each carrier in the 1900 MHz band. The measure is aimed at improving service quality.
- Brazilian satellite operator Star One, part of the Embratel unit, plans to invest $400 million in its next satellite, the Star One D1. The satellite will enter orbit in the first quarter of 2016.
- Huawei has started handset production in a joint-venture factory that the company has set up with Compal Electronics in Brazil.
- Samsung Electronics Co. is facing a lawsuit from the Brazilian government. The prosecutors are seeking damages over the poor working conditions on the company’s assembly lines.
- DTH operator Dish Mexico must wait for the approval of the convergence law before adding free-to-air channels from Televisa and TV Azteca to its services.
- The second annual “Mobile Messaging and Social Networking Survey” by tyntec and YouGov reveals that Brazil has the highest daily SMS usage with 12% of Brazilians sending at least 30 texts per day. The survey also shows that 23% of Brazilians check their Facebook via a mobile phone more than five times per day.
- Evernote and Telefónica have signed a global agreement. As part of the agreement, Evernote will provide one-year Evernote premium accounts to customers of participating Telefónica operating businesses worldwide.
- Mobile advertising and data provider Millennial Media Inc. has entered a strategic partnership with Adsmovil, a mobile ad network in the Latin American and the U.S. Hispanic markets. The deal will enable Adsmovil to leverage Millennial Media’s mobile advertising solutions to reach a wide spectrum of consumers in South America, Central America and Mexico.
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