­Landline and mobile telephony losses from VoIP are expected to exceed US$18.4 billion by 2014 in Latin America, reports local research house, Signals Telecom Consulting. Their report also expects that the regional FTTx market will record a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.64% in the number of homes passed in the 2009-2014 period. Launch of DOCSIS 3.0 services by CATV operators in Latin America will drive the deployment of VDSL and FTTx solutions.

Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela account for over 88% of the Latin American VoIP market. Increased coverage by UMTS/HSPA networks and prospects for the arrival in the region of LTE networks will encourage landline operator investments intended to increase transmission speeds for their cabled broadband offerings.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has invited Caribbean countries to use the country’s Simon Bolivar (Venesat-1) satellite, which entered operations in January and covers the island region, reports BNamericas. Chavez added that, in partnership with his close ally Cuba, it was his aim to implement satellite-based tele-medicine, tele-education, internet access, social services, and mobile telephony programmes covering the whole region. Science and technology minister Jesse Chacon emphasised that Venesat-1 will enable the provision of telephony, high speed internet and TV services in isolated areas in Venezuela and will also be instrumental in the implementation of tele-medicine and tele-education programmes. The minister said work had begun to connect all university branches in the country with their main campuses via the satellite, and there were plans to connect hospitals in Caracas with small medical centres in remote southern areas. Uruguay is also entitled to use Venesat-1 for research purposes.

Chacon also announced that the state is undertaking a project to deploy a free public Wi-Fi mesh network covering 50 square kilometres in the city of Barquisimeto, the Lara state capital. Hotspots would initially be used principally by students and for tracing vehicles. Chacon inaugurated one of 50 digital access centres planned for Lara this year.

Source: TeleGeography.

Pan-Caribbean wireless group Digicel has reported its first net profit since its launch in 2001. Digicel, which comprises mobile phone operations in 31 markets across the Caribbean, Pacific and Latin America, recorded a net profit of USD41 million in the twelve months to 31 March 2009, compared to a loss of USD74 million in the previous year. ‘It is an important landmark for us,’ Digicel’s chief executive Colm Delves told The Irish Times. At a pre-tax level, Digicel posted a profit of USD113 million compared with a loss of USD48 million in the previous period. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) reached USD680 million, a 34% increase year-on-year. Revenues rose by 11% to USD1.73 billion, while its subscriber base was up 34% to 9.2 million. The company’s net debt at the end of March was USD2.7 billion.

Source: TeleGeography.

Cuban state-owned telco ETECSA increased its wireless subscriber base by more than 130,000 in 2008, BNamericas reports. ETECSA, the sole cellco in Cuba, finished the year with 330,000 subscribers compared to 273,600 in September 2008. The increase was due to a move by the government to make mobile phones more accessible to citizens by reducing the cost of activating wireless devices. ETECSA hopes to increase its subscriber base by 250,000 in 2009, rising to a total of 1.6 million by 2012, equivalent to around 10% of the Cuban population.

Source: TeleGeography.

The mobile market in the Caribbean & Latin America further polarised towards GSM technology in Q2 2008, as the total number of customers using the technology and its 3G derivative W-CDMA increased by 6.9% to almost 360m. At the end of June 2008, the GSM/W-CDMA base made up 86.3% of the regional total, up from 84.6% three months earlier.

Most of the ground was given up by the CDMA base, which decreased in size by more than 5% in the quarter to under 48m.

The last 12 months have seen the advent of W-CDMA-based 3G networks across Latin America, with services now commercial in 12 markets in the region. Launches took place in three new markets in the quarter, including Brazil, where numbers were already almost 1m at the end of August after just three months. As far as Q2 is concerned, total customer numbers increased by 67.5% to almost 1.25m (the majority at this time coming from Mexico) which represents an annual improvement of over 1000%.

The introduction of W-CDMA has added to the effect of the continued rise of GSM and slowed the increase in numbers of 3G CDMA EV-DO connections considerably, the base levelling out at around 2.8m across the region.

Source: Cellular News.

Brazil's mobile operators are likely to achieve 100% coverage of the country by the end of 2009, local press reported, citing information from telecoms regulator Anatel.

Today, mobile coverage is limited to cities with more than 30,000 inhabitants, according to the report.

Anatel expects coverage of neglected areas to get a boost this year as a result of upcoming auctions for mobile licenses dedicated to small towns and municipalities. The idea is to start bidding at minimum prices that are much lower than sought on previous occasions.

Mobile operators are not obliged by local regulations to contribute to universal access, and prefer to provide services in densely populated areas, whereas the concession contracts of fixed line operators include obligations to provide coverage in neglected areas.

According to Anatel, the mobile penetration rate in the country was 60.4% at end-October, compared to 59.5% at end-September.

Source: Cellular News.

Brazilian mobile carrier Vivo had a 27.61 percent market share in October, while its major competitor TIM had 25.88 percent. The figures from regulatory agency Anatel show TIM edging higher from the previous month and a small drop in Vivo’s share. Claro was the third largest player in Brazil with 25.89 percent share, up from September, while Oi had 13.27 percent and Telemig Celular/Amazonia Celular had 4.41 percent. The technology GSM is the leader in the country with 86.6 million access lines, or 75.52 percent share. CDMA has 22 million accesses (19.26%) and TDMA has 5.9 million accesses (5.20%).

Source: Wireless Federation, based on press release by Anatel.