MIAMI — During last week’s NetEvents Americas Press & Summit, two North American vendors said that the recent decision by Brazilian telecom regulator Anatel to suspend three wireless carriers from selling new services—TIM Brasil, Oi and Claro—represents a sales opportunity for them.
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Canadian-based Accedian, a provider of high performance service assurance solutions for carrier Ethernet networks, said it has been contacted by a Brazilian carrier. “They acquired companies with huge legacy infrastructures. In addition, there was a lack of investment. They have not invested enough to meet the increasing addition of lines per month,” said James M. Artimez, Accedian’s vice president of sales for Latin America.
In Artimez’ opinion, a lot could have been prevented, if the carriers had been proactive. “Problems could have been avoided. For many years, the carriers were reactive,” he said. On Anatel’s side, Artimez noted that the regulator is making some hard decisions now because two global organizations are looking at Brazil every day: FIFA and the Olympic committee. “They know for a fact that if the infrastructure stays how it is, [the events] won’t happen,” he said. “When these institutions hear about some problem, they want solutions, and Anatel has to do something.”
Artimez noted that it is a good time for the company’s business in Latin America because of LTE initiatives, Brazil’s emerging economy and a market which is becoming more globalized.
Telco Systems also sees good opportunities in the region. As Hector Menjivar, VP of sales for Latin America, explained to RCR Wireless News, the company has already contacted Anatel. “We are approaching them through our partners,” he said. “Our idea is to help Anatel test networks.”
These companies are not alone. In a previous article, analysts and vendors discussed the impact of Anatel’s decision on vendors. Wagner Ferreira, Alcatel-Lucent’s director for commercial and government relations, said that although it is too early to evaluate, operators are certainly reviewing their investment plans, and new investments should focus mainly on voice networks and call center management.
NetEvents provided travel costs to this event.
Be sure not to miss
- TIM, Claro present action plans; TIM to invest $4.7 billion by 2014
- Analyst Angle: Anatel is customers’ hero for punishing operators but needs to go further
- Brazilian carriers’ action plans could impact telecom vendors
- Analysts question severity of Anatel’s Brazilian carrier suspensions
- Fallout begins for Brazilian operators after sales suspension
- Brazil suspends some TIM, Oi and Claro sales due to customer complaints
