A consortium made up of Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca and Tendai won a bid to install and operate a fiber optic network covering nearly 80% of Peru. The National Fiber Optic Backbone grant consists of the design, deployment and operation …
Roberta Prescott
Roberta Prescott
Editor, [email protected] Roberta Prescott is responsible for Latin America reporting news and analysis, interviewing key stakeholders. Roberta has worked as an IT and telecommunication journalist since March 2005, when she started as a reporter with InformationWeek Brasil magazine and its website IT Web. In July 2006, Prescott was promoted to be the editor-in-chief, and, beyond the magazine and website, was in charge for all ICT products, such as IT events and CIO awards. In mid-2010, she was promoted to the position of executive editor, with responsibility for all the editorial products and content of IT Mídia. Prescott has worked as a journalist since 1998 and has three journalism prizes. In 2009, she won, along with InformationWeek Brasil team, the press prize 11th Prêmio Imprensa Embratel. In 2008, she won the 7th Unisys Journalism Prize and in 2006 was the editor-in-chief when InformationWeek Brasil won the 20th media award Prêmio Veículos de Comunicação. She graduated in Journalism by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, has done specialization in journalism at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain, 2003) and Master in Journalism at IICS – Universidad de Navarra (Brazil, 2010) and MBA – Executive Education at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.
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Peru’s regulatory agency OSIPTEL released two proposals over the past week affecting the telecom environment. The first proposal states that telecommunication operators should raise the minimum guaranteed connection speed for fixed and mobile Internet. The minimum speed should not be less …
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Despite a recent negative antitrust ruling, Vivo, the Brazilian unit of Spanish Telefónica, views 2013 as a good year. The carrier focused on increasing its postpaid base and encouraging data usage (the MultiVivo offering is one example). In Brazil’s LTE …
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Brazil’s antitrust regulator has issued a negative assessment of Telefónica’s recent move to bolster its stake in the Telco holding company that owns about 22% of Telecom Italia, the company that controls Brazilian carrier TIM. By increasing its stake, Telefónica will effectively take control of …
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LTE services are growing across Latin America. Following launches in other countries, Movistar Peru announced it will commercially launch its LTE services on Jan. 2. The service will initially be available in seven districts within the Lima region. Movistar Peru …
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In 2012, the mobile industry generated more than 3.7% of Latin America’s GDP, contributing U.S.$211 billion to the region’s economy. Latin America now accounts for 10% of the global mobile market in terms of revenue, more than double the percentage …
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Colombian Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogotá has decided to sell its nearly 25% stake in Colombia Móvil-Tigo to UNE-EPM for $240 million. Earlier this year, Millicon and EPM Telecomunicaciones, the largest shareholder of UNE EPM Telecomunicaciones, entered into exclusive negotiations about …
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Big changes are in the works for Brazil’s telecommunication policies. At the end of last week telecom regulator Anatel published a resolution on the 700 MHz band saying that an auction for this frequency band will only occur if interference issues …
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LatAm Wrap-Up: Nextel to launch LTE in some cities; Colombia prepares $53M tender to expand Internet
When NII Holdings reported its third quarter results. The carrier, which is also known as Nextel in Latin America, also announced plans to deploy LTE in select cities in 2014. According to NII Holdings CEO Steve Shindler, the move to launch …
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RIO DE JANEIRO—The impact of software defined networks (SDN) and how carriers should deal with over-the-top (OTT) providers were hot topics at Futurecom, the largest telecom event of Latin America held in Brazil last week. At the trade show, RCR Wireless …
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RIO DE JANEIRO – More than half (52%) of all videos played across Brazil’s 3G networks suffer from significant stalling and buffering, according to a survey from Skyfire, a fully-owned subsidiary of Opera Software. The study found that 89% of …
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RIO DE JANEIRO — Although there are some concerns regarding TIM’s future in Brazil, following negotiations between Telefónica and TIM’s parent company Telecom Italia, TIM president Rodrigo Abreu outlined some of the carrier’s goals at the Futurecom event this week. Abreu also highlighted …
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RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s Oi, which recently merged with Portugal Telecom, announced it will have 500,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in Brazil by the end of this year. Speaking at the Futurecom event, Zeinal Bava, president of Oi and PT, said that …
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RIO DE JANEIRO — Alcatel-Lucent is betting on the growth of small cells across the Caribbean and Latin American region. In a meeting with members of the press at the Futurecom event, Osvaldo Di Campli, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s CALA unit, announced that …
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RIO DE JANEIRO—Expanding LTE services is among Telefónica Vivo’s goals for the next year. During a lecture at the Futurecom event, Antonio Carlos Valente, president of Telefónica Vivo, said the carrier plans to provide LTE services in 72 cities in …
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RIO DE JANEIRO — The first m-payment product following a joint venture between Claro Brazil and Bradesco, one of the largest banks in Latin America, debuted at the Futurecom event this week. The joint venture named MPO (Mobile Payment Operator) was first announced last …
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RIO DE JANEIRO — Telefónica Vivo presented the first range of smartphones with the Firefox operating system in Brazil during the Futurecom event this week. Vivo is currently the only telecom operator in the country to sell LG and Alcatel …
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RIO DE JANEIRO—Brazil’s 700 MHz auction is expected to take place during the first half of next year with the goal of providing enough spectrum bands for LTE expansion in the country, according to João Rezende, president of Brazil’s telecom …
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Brasil has the most expensive cell phone rates on the planet, according to a study released by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). According to the organization, a one-minute call in Brazil costs about U.S.$0.71 to $0.74, three times more than a similar …
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When telecom operators reach out to their customers, they should provide personalized and proactive contact that is simple, convenient, quick, efficient, trustworthy and transparent—all while being cool and fun. These are some of the points presented by Rob Rich, TM …
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Telefónica Brazil is starting its first trial to virtualize customer premises equipment (CPE). The telecom operator is partnering with NEC Corporation for the trial. The CPE solution is expected to simplify the home equipment installation process, and in the process, Telefónica’s …
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Telecom operators around the world are using analytics tools for two major reasons: to become more efficient in their operations; and using analytics in order to manage the cost element and to grow revenue, which is the most exciting part …
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Oi, the huge Brazilian carrier that plans to be big enough to face foreign competition, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Portugal Telecom (PT) to form a combined entity named CorpCo. The merger which will unite the shareholders …
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NEW YORK—Open standards are leading network vendors’ efforts as they prepare for the next year, driven by the so-called application economy. “The future will be an application economy,” said John Chambers, chair and CEO of Cisco. “It’s all about applications: business models, …
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IBM made two acquisitions over the last week aimed at enhancing both big data and customer experience. Focusing on communications service providers (CSPs), Big Blue announced a definitive agreement to acquire The Now Factory, a privately held provider of analytics …