In the middle of discussions over TIM’s future, Telecom Italia CEO Marco Patuano visited Brazil and announced investments of around $1.68 billion per year through 2016. Patuano also used his visit and meeting with communications minister Paulo Bernardo to send a message for those that expect the Brazilian carrier TIM to be sold: “TIM is a strategic asset for Telecom Italia.”
Rumors about the sale of TIM have been circulating since Telefónica moved to bolster its stake in the Telco holding company that owns about 22% of Telecom Italia, the company that controls TIM. This week, TIM was said to be entering into a partnership with Vivendi’s GVT, which owns fixed-telephony operations in Brazil, to join assets in the country. The two companies have denied the partnership.
In December, Brazilian antitrust regulator Cade declared that either Telefónica must sell its position in Telecom Italia or find a new partner for its Brazilian carrier Vivo.
License renewal:The uncertainty around license renewal in Latin America can cause mobile operators to reduce their capital expenditure by as much as 67%, which in turn could significantly delay the deployment of new mobile services, according to a GSMA survey. A number of the original 2G spectrum licenses acquired in the 1990s are due to expire within the next five years in many Latin American countries: namely Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Uruguay and most urgently, Colombia. The GSMA noted that the situation for Colombian mobile operators Claro and Movistar is particularly critical as their licenses will expire at the end of March, and the terms and conditions for renewal are not yet clear.
Data for prepaid users: It’s no surprise that prepaid subscriptions represent the majority of mobile connections in emerging markets, ranging from 75% up to almost 99% in some countries. But, Informa Telecoms & Media found that 84% of operators in emerging markets are pushing mobile data services to prepaid customers to increase the average revenue per user. The survey, which included 156 emerging market operators, found that strategies included offering free data trial periods (68% of respondents), special promotions on smartphones (58% respondents) and free megabytes when topping up (57% respondents).
More news from Latin America:
- Peru’s agency for private investment in telecommunications, Osiptel, approved changes to the general tariff rules, with the goal of promoting competition and helping customers get better information about the services they use.
- The Bahamas Telecommunications Co., part of Cable & Wireless Communications, has completed the commercial launch of the country’s only LTE mobile data services. LTE will be available in The Bahamas’ four most populated islands this month and then rolled out to the rest of the country. The network upgrade has been undertaken by Huawei.
- Telefónica’s Vivo launched a cloud-based subscription service for magazines and newspapers as well as the news provided by international agencies. Customers can read the publications using their smartphones, PCs or tablets.
- Brazil’s Oi posted total net revenue of $3 billion during the fourth quarter of 2013, down 2.4% from the same period of the previous year. Full year net revenue increased 1% to $11.9 billion, of which personal mobility services accounted for $3.9 billion, 2.1% more than the full year of 2012.
- TIM posted its results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2013. The company said its customer base grew 14.6% year-over-year. Gross revenues totaled $3.2 million in 2013, 4.7% more than 2012. Net revenues increased 3.1%.
