Brazil is the fourth-largest market in the world for machine-to-machine technology with an annual growth of 25%, according to the GSMA. In 2014, there were 9 million M2M connections in the country. Brazil, along with the rest of the world, is expected to push forward the development of the “Internet of Things.” At the SAP Forum 2015 this week in São Paulo, Google, Philips and T-Systems showed what they are doing in the IoT field.
T-Systems is working with automobile manufacturers to embed the company’s monitoring solution in vehicles. Philips is developing smart lighting, and Google is encouraging companies to use its IoT platform. During the event, RCR Wireless News conducted video interviews with Carlos Ribeiro, manager at T-Systems Brazil; Alex Burger, manager at Philips Consumer Lifestyle; and Fernando Teixeira, head of technology and pre-sales at Google Latin America to better understand their current IoT projects.
Each video interview can be viewed on the RCR Wireless News Youtube page in the Latam Mobile News playlist.
The IoT network revolution
Network economy: Dinesh Sharma, SAP’s VP of portfolio marketing for the IoT spoke to RCR Wireless News about how hyperconnectivity will reshape the world. According to Sharma, the network economy is transforming people’s lives and business. Gross world product will jump from $360 billion in 1850 right after the industrial revolution to $90 trillion by 2020, driven in part by the network economy.
Sharma also commented on how telecom operators fit into this new era:
Mexican mobile scenario: The number of mobile lines in Mexico reached 105.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2014, representing a penetration of 87.4%. Telcel still has the largest market share with 67.9% of all mobile lines, followed by Movistar (20.6%), Iusacell (8.7%) and Nextel (2.7%). Iusacell and Nextel were both recently acquired by AT&T.
NII Holdings results: The owner of Nextel ended 2014 with a net loss of 61,000 subscribers, bringing its year-end base to 9.2 million subscribers. The company had consolidated operating revenue of $3.7 billion, a consolidated adjusted OIBDA loss of $251 million, and a consolidated operating loss of $1.11 billion. Capital expenditures were $428 million for the full year of 2014. In a statement, Steve Shindler, NII Holdings CEO, said the Q4 operational and financial results are beginning to show improvement, although they still fell short of the company’s goals. Shindler, however, was optimistic about the year ahead. “Our focus for 2015 will be to continue to build on this subscriber growth trend and improve our operating performance,” he said.
More Latin American news:
BRAZIL – Telecom regulator Anatel approved the acquisition of GVT by Telefónica Vivo under the condition that the Spanish group end its participation in Telecom Italia, the company that owns the rival operator TIM in Brazil.
MEXICO – The Mexican authorities are expected to hold an auction for a $10 billion national mobile broadband network by October with initial terms to be released in June.
REGION – Beginning in Central America, 2G networks will start to be shut down over the next five to 10 years, according to Jose Otero, 4G Americas’ director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
PANAMA – Cable & Wireless Panamá launched LTE services in the 700 MHz band.
BRAZIL – The number of broadband accesses in Brazil reached 197 million in January, an increase of 48% compared to January 2014. The numbers were released by the carrier association Telebrasil.
MEXICO – Axtel and América Móvil’s Telcel have reached an agreement to end several disputes related to interconnection services. As part of the deal, Axtel and Telcel executed interconnection agreements for the years 2005-2015, inclusive.
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