I read yesterday that for the second time in less than a year Slovakia's incumbent telecoms operator has been fined by the country's anti-monopoly authority, the PMU, for abuse of dominant market position. The nature of the abuse is reported to be around failure to give network access to competing service providers. This recent fine is around EUR29.2 million, up from the EUR 17.4 million demanded by the PMU in late 2007 for anti-competitive behaviour.
It's not my role to study this situation in detail, so I am not clear what efforts, if any, Slovak Telekom (of which 51% is owned by Deutsche Telekom) has made to correct its business practices as a result of the earlier punishment. It is tempting to wonder, however, whether the level of these fines is high enough to prompt meaninful change. It certainly chimes with snippets I've picked up in 5 years of attending CEE region industry conference in Budapest, Bucharest and Prague. At most of these, I heard grumblings from altnets about the slow pace of positive change in terms of harmonisation with the broader EU telecoms regulatory framework.
We have not packed the agenda of next months CEE Com conference in Prague with discussions around regulatory and competition issues, but I daresay there will be the usual exchange of views during the offline networking sessions. If you represent an operator within the CEE region, or one whose footprint extends into that area, I invite you to visit the event website and claim your free delegate pass. Dates for your diary: 17-18 September. Venue: Clarion Congress Hotel, Prague.
www.ComWorldSeries.com/cee
21 Aug 2008
20 Aug 2008
Looking forward to hearing more on IPTV from carriers in CEE and Latin America
I read a Telecom Asia piece on the train into London this morning, which mulls over the idea of whether IPTV poses more questions than it currently offers answers. The writer asks whether it is "a rewarding new category, like SMS, or a dazzling non-event like the videophone? Is it more vendor snake oil, or an important new product? Is it purely defensive or will it one day deliver real income? Will it be overtaken by YouTube and online TV? Does IPTV even matter?"
I am not close enough to the discussion to presume to offer any answers of my own here, but I'm looking forward to my team and I gleaning the views of telcos on two continents next month. The first opportunity to do so will be my own trip to Rio de Janeiro to host our annual Americas Com conference and exhibition, 9-10 September. Later the same month, we're hosting the CEE Com event in Prague (17-18 September). At both conferences, we expect there to be a lot of talk around IPTV. In both cases we've made the effort to confirm the participation of triple-players from the cable space as well as telco carriers rolling out IPTV services.
We ran the Latin America event under the 'GSM Americas' banner for more than a decade, taking full advantage of the regional boom in mobile services and the tech vendors' desire to assembe big crowds of cellular carrier execs under one roof on an annual basis. For reasons I discussed last week, we've felt for a while now that it's imperative for us to broaden the appeal, bringing on board representatives of the purely wireline businesses, execs from integrated operators (i.e. with both fixed line and mobile network assets/services) whose brief covers the whole business - as well as our loyal crowd of MNO people. Certainly in terms of signing up a speaker panel that reflects this diversity, we have been successful. So as well as hearing from MNOs such as Movistar Chile, Claro Brasil, Iusacell and Ancel, delegates will draw lessons from wireline businesses such as Ecuador's ETAPA, Colombia's ETB Telecom and Bolivian telecoms co-ops COTEL and COTECO.
Not a day passes without my receiving more news of IPTV licensing wrangles around South America. So I am pleased that a number of the presentations in Rio will bear down on the business models, technology choices, regulatory enablers/inhibitors and more. Notable talks focused on this area will come from Mexico's Alestra and a cabler from that country, Cablecom.
In Prague, we've dedicted a good chunk of both conference days to discussing IPTV and telco-media convergence more broadly. Speakers addressing these themes will include:
I am not close enough to the discussion to presume to offer any answers of my own here, but I'm looking forward to my team and I gleaning the views of telcos on two continents next month. The first opportunity to do so will be my own trip to Rio de Janeiro to host our annual Americas Com conference and exhibition, 9-10 September. Later the same month, we're hosting the CEE Com event in Prague (17-18 September). At both conferences, we expect there to be a lot of talk around IPTV. In both cases we've made the effort to confirm the participation of triple-players from the cable space as well as telco carriers rolling out IPTV services.
We ran the Latin America event under the 'GSM Americas' banner for more than a decade, taking full advantage of the regional boom in mobile services and the tech vendors' desire to assembe big crowds of cellular carrier execs under one roof on an annual basis. For reasons I discussed last week, we've felt for a while now that it's imperative for us to broaden the appeal, bringing on board representatives of the purely wireline businesses, execs from integrated operators (i.e. with both fixed line and mobile network assets/services) whose brief covers the whole business - as well as our loyal crowd of MNO people. Certainly in terms of signing up a speaker panel that reflects this diversity, we have been successful. So as well as hearing from MNOs such as Movistar Chile, Claro Brasil, Iusacell and Ancel, delegates will draw lessons from wireline businesses such as Ecuador's ETAPA, Colombia's ETB Telecom and Bolivian telecoms co-ops COTEL and COTECO.
Not a day passes without my receiving more news of IPTV licensing wrangles around South America. So I am pleased that a number of the presentations in Rio will bear down on the business models, technology choices, regulatory enablers/inhibitors and more. Notable talks focused on this area will come from Mexico's Alestra and a cabler from that country, Cablecom.
In Prague, we've dedicted a good chunk of both conference days to discussing IPTV and telco-media convergence more broadly. Speakers addressing these themes will include:
- Nikolai Beckers, CEO, MAKEDONSKI TELEKOMUNIKACII, MACEDONIA
- Nedžad Rešidbegović, General Director, BH TELECOM, BOSNIA
- David Masat, CCO, České Radiokomunikace, Czech Republic
- Michal Táborský, Director of IPTV Services, TELEFÓNICA O2 CZECH REPUBLIC
- Jakub Brzeczkowski, TV/VOD director - EEMEA REGION - CONTENT DIVISION,
FRANCE TELECOM GROUP
Forced to choose between attending the Rio and Prague events, I have had to book my ticket for Brazil for entirely sensible business reasons. Cynical readers might think that I am ducking out the European autumn just to enjoy a few days of the South America spring. The thought never crossed my mind. None of the pictures I plan to post here from Rio will be of beaches or tourist sites, I promise. I shall only show you images of a packed conference room and exhibition area.
19 Aug 2008
Vodafone stake to grow in CEE region's largest market?
My team defines CEE (Central & Eastern Europe) as a bloc of markets consisting of the three Baltic States, the Visegrad Group of countries at the heart of Europe, the two most recent EU entrants and the numerous small states of the Balkans. For the purposes of organising our telecoms industry region-specific conference/exhibition events, we align states such as Ukraine and Belarus with the Russian Federation for our Russia & CIS Com property.
So, in the context of the CEE region as we define it, Poland is the largest market by some margin. Telecoms news coming out of that country is therefore something in which I always take an interest - and my interest is sharpened by the special connection I feel to Poland. I spent four very happy and rewarding years living in Kielce and Kraków back in the early 1990s. I made many last friendships along the way and grabbed the opportunity to explore the country and its neighbours pretty thoroughly.
So my eye was caught late last week by reports of Vodafone looking to up its stake in Polish MNO Polkomtel. Even if this deal does go through, I am unclear whether the various shareholders would be thinking in terms of the Vodafone brand name being used by the operator, whose current brand name is 'Plus'. If this is not the case, Plus/Polkomtel would be set to remain the only one of Poland three longest-established MNOs using a local brand name. PTK Centertel has been known as Orange Polska since 2005, ditching its former Idea brand name in favour of harmonisation with the mobile brands of parent company France Telecom. I've also heard it said that Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa will drop its current 'Era' brand fairly soon, moving more obviously into the T-Mobile fold.
These developments are likely to get an airing at our CEE Com event in Prague, 17-18 September. Remember that those of you who represent a telecoms operator/service provider may attend free of charge.
So, in the context of the CEE region as we define it, Poland is the largest market by some margin. Telecoms news coming out of that country is therefore something in which I always take an interest - and my interest is sharpened by the special connection I feel to Poland. I spent four very happy and rewarding years living in Kielce and Kraków back in the early 1990s. I made many last friendships along the way and grabbed the opportunity to explore the country and its neighbours pretty thoroughly.
So my eye was caught late last week by reports of Vodafone looking to up its stake in Polish MNO Polkomtel. Even if this deal does go through, I am unclear whether the various shareholders would be thinking in terms of the Vodafone brand name being used by the operator, whose current brand name is 'Plus'. If this is not the case, Plus/Polkomtel would be set to remain the only one of Poland three longest-established MNOs using a local brand name. PTK Centertel has been known as Orange Polska since 2005, ditching its former Idea brand name in favour of harmonisation with the mobile brands of parent company France Telecom. I've also heard it said that Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa will drop its current 'Era' brand fairly soon, moving more obviously into the T-Mobile fold.
These developments are likely to get an airing at our CEE Com event in Prague, 17-18 September. Remember that those of you who represent a telecoms operator/service provider may attend free of charge.
14 Aug 2008
Vendors and operators show one-size does not fit all across the Middle East
This morning I had the pleasure of meeting a marketing contact with responsibility for the Middle East, Pakistan and Africa, representing one of the major network infrastructure vendors. The purpose of the meeting was to work out the timing and topic for the presentation to be made by the company's speaker at our December "Towards a Broadband World" event in Dubai.
It is always gratifying when a sponsor's thoughts about selecting a value-adding topic are not too far from my own. In this case, we wanted to urge our customer to talk in quite broad terms about the range of competing and complementary broadband wireless access technologies being evaluated by mobile, fixed and integrated operators in the region. I felt this was important for a number of reasons. Firstly, we are working hard to broaden the focus of the conference well beyond issues concerning either pure-play mobility businesses or the mobile-specific business units of carriers with both cellular and wireline assets. I am confident we will be successful, so I was keen for our customer to take advantage of speaking in a plenary sessions, when the themes addressed need to be broader than the issues tackled in technology-specific breakouts. Secondly, I felt that a more holistic look at all forms of broadband access made sense in the light of what I was told by a colleague who represented me a few weeks ago in face-to-face meetings with a number of operators in the Middle East.
Aaron Boasman, who works in our Networks & Infrastructure team, came back from a quick tour of the region armed with interesting insights. He was told by the GM of Corporate Affairs at one country's incumbent operator told Aaron that the company was more bullish about the prospects for fixed broadband access than the mobile version on the grounds of the robustness of the service. Certainly at the time of that meeting, the company had not deployed WiMAX, unlike its principal competitor in the mobile space. On another leg of the journey, Aaron was told by one operator that WiMAX deployment has been signidficantly delayed mainly as a result of the country's unsatisfactory regulatory regime. In that particular meeting, HSPA was given a very favourable review due to the country's poor quality copper network and very under-developed FTTx.
These snippets confirmed for me that when telecoms industry watchers attempt to speak in broad terms about trends in a given world region, they need to be mindful that these regions are not always neatly homogenous. A look at Zain, whose footprint extends across and beyond the Middle East, support this view.
Matthew Reed, writing for our fortnightly Middle East & Africa Wireless Analyst research service this month flagged up Zain's imminent market entry in Saudi Arabia. Matthew writes that this new market's huge potential for high-speed Internet-access services is sparking interest in the group's wider wireless broadband strategy. The MEAWA story reports that Zain has had Nokia-Siemens Networks and Motorola deploy HSPA in key cities in anticipation of high demand for beoadband services with mobility, the pent up appetite for which has possibly been frustrated by slow DSL rollout by incumbent STC.
The MEAWA story goes on to note that Zain has embarked on a number of different technology paths across its footprint. For example, in Kuwait, Zain's original 'home market', the operator has launched a 7.2Mbps HSPA network that enables video calling, streaming TV and sports footage and movie-clip downloads. Customers there use a Huawei HSDPA dongle. This seems to work well in tiny Kuwait, which accounts for only 3% of the group's subscription count but one-fifth of its revenues.
MEAWA notes that in Suadan, Zain has launched a 3.5G network in the capital capital, Khartoum, and runs both HSDPA and WiMAX networks in the tiny Gulf state of Bahrain.
In the longer term, writes Reed, Zain plans to deploy wireless-broadband services in many more countries, and is looking out for WiMAX licenses in several African countries.
It is proving very enjoyable to navigate my way around these varied market. I am confident that those of you who join us in Dubai in December will see the diversity of market conditions and operators' technology choices fully reflected in a compelling conference agenda.
It is always gratifying when a sponsor's thoughts about selecting a value-adding topic are not too far from my own. In this case, we wanted to urge our customer to talk in quite broad terms about the range of competing and complementary broadband wireless access technologies being evaluated by mobile, fixed and integrated operators in the region. I felt this was important for a number of reasons. Firstly, we are working hard to broaden the focus of the conference well beyond issues concerning either pure-play mobility businesses or the mobile-specific business units of carriers with both cellular and wireline assets. I am confident we will be successful, so I was keen for our customer to take advantage of speaking in a plenary sessions, when the themes addressed need to be broader than the issues tackled in technology-specific breakouts. Secondly, I felt that a more holistic look at all forms of broadband access made sense in the light of what I was told by a colleague who represented me a few weeks ago in face-to-face meetings with a number of operators in the Middle East.
Aaron Boasman, who works in our Networks & Infrastructure team, came back from a quick tour of the region armed with interesting insights. He was told by the GM of Corporate Affairs at one country's incumbent operator told Aaron that the company was more bullish about the prospects for fixed broadband access than the mobile version on the grounds of the robustness of the service. Certainly at the time of that meeting, the company had not deployed WiMAX, unlike its principal competitor in the mobile space. On another leg of the journey, Aaron was told by one operator that WiMAX deployment has been signidficantly delayed mainly as a result of the country's unsatisfactory regulatory regime. In that particular meeting, HSPA was given a very favourable review due to the country's poor quality copper network and very under-developed FTTx.
These snippets confirmed for me that when telecoms industry watchers attempt to speak in broad terms about trends in a given world region, they need to be mindful that these regions are not always neatly homogenous. A look at Zain, whose footprint extends across and beyond the Middle East, support this view.
Matthew Reed, writing for our fortnightly Middle East & Africa Wireless Analyst research service this month flagged up Zain's imminent market entry in Saudi Arabia. Matthew writes that this new market's huge potential for high-speed Internet-access services is sparking interest in the group's wider wireless broadband strategy. The MEAWA story reports that Zain has had Nokia-Siemens Networks and Motorola deploy HSPA in key cities in anticipation of high demand for beoadband services with mobility, the pent up appetite for which has possibly been frustrated by slow DSL rollout by incumbent STC.
The MEAWA story goes on to note that Zain has embarked on a number of different technology paths across its footprint. For example, in Kuwait, Zain's original 'home market', the operator has launched a 7.2Mbps HSPA network that enables video calling, streaming TV and sports footage and movie-clip downloads. Customers there use a Huawei HSDPA dongle. This seems to work well in tiny Kuwait, which accounts for only 3% of the group's subscription count but one-fifth of its revenues.
MEAWA notes that in Suadan, Zain has launched a 3.5G network in the capital capital, Khartoum, and runs both HSDPA and WiMAX networks in the tiny Gulf state of Bahrain.
In the longer term, writes Reed, Zain plans to deploy wireless-broadband services in many more countries, and is looking out for WiMAX licenses in several African countries.
It is proving very enjoyable to navigate my way around these varied market. I am confident that those of you who join us in Dubai in December will see the diversity of market conditions and operators' technology choices fully reflected in a compelling conference agenda.
13 Aug 2008
Middle East market liberalisation offering opportunities for strategic investors
Most of my attention is on the Middle East right now - we are working hard to improve further one of the two largest events in the Com World Series, our annual conference and exhibition in Dubai, at which we gather telco execs from all over (and beyond) the region. This year's iteration will take place 15-16 December. So I find myself paying most attention to news items relating to the Middle East this week.
Telecoms.com reported yesterday that the Government of Oman has opened bidding on a new fixed line telecommunications licence to be made available in the country, opening up the market to overseas investors. As the report notes, this may be an attractive opportunity for some, given that Oman's fixed line penetration rate is approximately 10%, with even lower broadband penetration. There is clearly ample room for growth. However, we will watch with interest to see if the overall scale of the opportunity catches the attention of major regional and global players.
As the telecoms.com story point out, Oman is not a very large market, with a population of approximately 2.75 million. While that population enjoys good living standards, the county's oil reserves are limited in comparison with those of some of its neighbours, which may make for an uncertain economic outlook.
A far larger market which will pique the interest of some in 2008 is the Islamic Republic Iran, home to over 70 million people. Earlier this year, I heard first-hand about a number of investment opportunities in Iran. Both our Eurasia Com conference in Turkey and our Russia & CIS Com conference in Moscow were attended by an Iranian Government delegation keen to flag up these opportunities. Infer what you will from the fact that the Iranian group was speaking to an audience drawn in part from Russia's 'big three' mobile operators (MTS, MegaFon, Vimpelcom) on each occasion.
At both event, I heard about how mobile penetration of only around 40% means that the new licensee will enjoy access to a market with a high level of pent-up demand. In the short term, the Iranian Government expects the new operator to acquire over 5 million subscribers by 2010. One attraction of the new licence may prove irresistible - the new operator will enjoy two years' exclusivity in the provision of 3G services.
This is just one of three opportunities in Iran, the sale of WiMAX-friendly spectrum/licences and the privatisation of incumbent fixed-line carrier TCI being the others.
In the next few weeks, I will be working to secure the participation of a high-level Iranian delegation at our Dubai event in December. Delegates from around and beyond the Middle East are sure to be interested to keep abreast of these developments.
It is exciting to be working on one of Informa Telecoms & Media's most important events and it's been gratifying to receive unsolicited expressions of interest from companies like Vodafone and Turkcell. The UK-headquartered global cellco will be represented on the panel of speakers by Hatem Dowidar, CEO the company's Partner Markets unit. Vodafone made the news earlier this year by confirming it's entry to the Qatari market, purchasing that country's second mobile licence. Turkcell, represented at our conference by Tayfun Çataltepe, Chief Corporate Strategy Officer and International Expansion Officer, was reported earlier this year to be interested in acquiring a stake in Syrian MNO SyriaTel, albeit with a background of US Treasury Department pressure to drop out of the deal.
With so much going on in the region, it is proving very absorbing to be studying developments and working to get the big players on board for our conference.
Telecoms.com reported yesterday that the Government of Oman has opened bidding on a new fixed line telecommunications licence to be made available in the country, opening up the market to overseas investors. As the report notes, this may be an attractive opportunity for some, given that Oman's fixed line penetration rate is approximately 10%, with even lower broadband penetration. There is clearly ample room for growth. However, we will watch with interest to see if the overall scale of the opportunity catches the attention of major regional and global players.
As the telecoms.com story point out, Oman is not a very large market, with a population of approximately 2.75 million. While that population enjoys good living standards, the county's oil reserves are limited in comparison with those of some of its neighbours, which may make for an uncertain economic outlook.
A far larger market which will pique the interest of some in 2008 is the Islamic Republic Iran, home to over 70 million people. Earlier this year, I heard first-hand about a number of investment opportunities in Iran. Both our Eurasia Com conference in Turkey and our Russia & CIS Com conference in Moscow were attended by an Iranian Government delegation keen to flag up these opportunities. Infer what you will from the fact that the Iranian group was speaking to an audience drawn in part from Russia's 'big three' mobile operators (MTS, MegaFon, Vimpelcom) on each occasion.
At both event, I heard about how mobile penetration of only around 40% means that the new licensee will enjoy access to a market with a high level of pent-up demand. In the short term, the Iranian Government expects the new operator to acquire over 5 million subscribers by 2010. One attraction of the new licence may prove irresistible - the new operator will enjoy two years' exclusivity in the provision of 3G services.
This is just one of three opportunities in Iran, the sale of WiMAX-friendly spectrum/licences and the privatisation of incumbent fixed-line carrier TCI being the others.
In the next few weeks, I will be working to secure the participation of a high-level Iranian delegation at our Dubai event in December. Delegates from around and beyond the Middle East are sure to be interested to keep abreast of these developments.
It is exciting to be working on one of Informa Telecoms & Media's most important events and it's been gratifying to receive unsolicited expressions of interest from companies like Vodafone and Turkcell. The UK-headquartered global cellco will be represented on the panel of speakers by Hatem Dowidar, CEO the company's Partner Markets unit. Vodafone made the news earlier this year by confirming it's entry to the Qatari market, purchasing that country's second mobile licence. Turkcell, represented at our conference by Tayfun Çataltepe, Chief Corporate Strategy Officer and International Expansion Officer, was reported earlier this year to be interested in acquiring a stake in Syrian MNO SyriaTel, albeit with a background of US Treasury Department pressure to drop out of the deal.
With so much going on in the region, it is proving very absorbing to be studying developments and working to get the big players on board for our conference.
12 Aug 2008
Looking ahead to insights from Ecuador at this year's Americas Com
Yesterday's Cellular News arrived in my inbox, bringing to my attention another WiMAX deployment in Latin America, this time by Ecuadorian state-owned carrier, Pacifictel. Airspan are supplying the base stations and CPE. I would be interested to know if there are plans for Pacifictel's sister company Andinatel to select the same kind of equipment and offer similar services, mainly because of a few snippets my team picked up while trying to secure the participation of Ecuadorean telcos at our imminent Americas Com conference and exhibition (September 9-10, Rio de Janeiro). We try to avoid asking telco executives to talk on very generic subjects, preferring to link each prospective speaker with something genuinely novel and value adding for the hundreds of telecoms sector delegates we gather from across South and Central America.
In the case of these two state-owned telcos from one of only two countries in South America not to share a border with the host country of the conference (ten points for telling me the other one without using Wikipedia!), we learned that plans are afoot at least to investigate the logic and processes around merging what are currently quite separate businesses. In case it's not obvious from the companies' names, Andinatel serves the Ecuadorean interior region while Pacifictel offers services in the ten coastal provinces. The companies are also aligned with Alegro PCS, a CDMA mobile operator (also state-owned), which lags far behind its two GSM rivals in terms of market share. According to Informa Telecoms & Media's invaluable World Cellular Information Service, Alegro's share of subscriptions shrank from 4.03% down to 3.00% in the period March 2008 to June 2008, losing further ground to Telefonica-backed Movistar Ecuador and América Móvil-owned Porta, whose website seems to be announcing the availability of 3G services.
When talking to industry-watchers about what Andinatel and/or Pacifictel might add to an already compelling conference agenda, we picked up on merger talk. Confirmed by a Telegeography story, we learned about about reports in the country's La Hora newspaper detailing a strategic planning consortium/council which plans to design a unified corporate policy and manage the operators' infrastructure. These plans apparently include integrating the mobile business into a future merger.
Back in April, I had the considerable pleasure of visiting telcos in Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia and Paraguay. In the latter two countries, we visited a number of cooperative-owned LECs and the state-owned incumbent fixed-line operator respectively. I was struck by the relatively modest scale of these organisations and wondered privately whether the Bolivian telecoms sector especially might not benefit from some level of consolidation. Currently, the competitive landscape in wireline looks like this: Entel is the incumbent long-distance carrier (and is associated with Entel Movil, an MNO), but the co-ops do better in terms of the local exchange market. Each major city/region is home to its own telecoms co-op. We visited two of the more significant ones away from the country's capital. Given that we've enjoyed some success in attracting the Bolivian co-ops to this year's Americas Com, I thought it might be instructive for them (and other relatively smaller telcos from similarly fragmented markets) to learn more about the proposed Andinatel-Pacifictel-Alergo merger.
While we remain unsure of whether any of this trio will be sending representatives, we did manage to secure the participation of ETAPA, a telco based in the country's third largest city, Cuenca. ETAPA General Director Boris Piedra will join the panel of speakers, speaking about the company's efforts to bridge the digital divide between the information society haves and have-nots. I really look forward to learning about this in more detail at the event - and I must admit, I'm also looking forward to another benefit of attending Americas Com in Rio - getting away from this thoroughly miserable on-off English summer...
In the case of these two state-owned telcos from one of only two countries in South America not to share a border with the host country of the conference (ten points for telling me the other one without using Wikipedia!), we learned that plans are afoot at least to investigate the logic and processes around merging what are currently quite separate businesses. In case it's not obvious from the companies' names, Andinatel serves the Ecuadorean interior region while Pacifictel offers services in the ten coastal provinces. The companies are also aligned with Alegro PCS, a CDMA mobile operator (also state-owned), which lags far behind its two GSM rivals in terms of market share. According to Informa Telecoms & Media's invaluable World Cellular Information Service, Alegro's share of subscriptions shrank from 4.03% down to 3.00% in the period March 2008 to June 2008, losing further ground to Telefonica-backed Movistar Ecuador and América Móvil-owned Porta, whose website seems to be announcing the availability of 3G services.
When talking to industry-watchers about what Andinatel and/or Pacifictel might add to an already compelling conference agenda, we picked up on merger talk. Confirmed by a Telegeography story, we learned about about reports in the country's La Hora newspaper detailing a strategic planning consortium/council which plans to design a unified corporate policy and manage the operators' infrastructure. These plans apparently include integrating the mobile business into a future merger.
Back in April, I had the considerable pleasure of visiting telcos in Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia and Paraguay. In the latter two countries, we visited a number of cooperative-owned LECs and the state-owned incumbent fixed-line operator respectively. I was struck by the relatively modest scale of these organisations and wondered privately whether the Bolivian telecoms sector especially might not benefit from some level of consolidation. Currently, the competitive landscape in wireline looks like this: Entel is the incumbent long-distance carrier (and is associated with Entel Movil, an MNO), but the co-ops do better in terms of the local exchange market. Each major city/region is home to its own telecoms co-op. We visited two of the more significant ones away from the country's capital. Given that we've enjoyed some success in attracting the Bolivian co-ops to this year's Americas Com, I thought it might be instructive for them (and other relatively smaller telcos from similarly fragmented markets) to learn more about the proposed Andinatel-Pacifictel-Alergo merger.
While we remain unsure of whether any of this trio will be sending representatives, we did manage to secure the participation of ETAPA, a telco based in the country's third largest city, Cuenca. ETAPA General Director Boris Piedra will join the panel of speakers, speaking about the company's efforts to bridge the digital divide between the information society haves and have-nots. I really look forward to learning about this in more detail at the event - and I must admit, I'm also looking forward to another benefit of attending Americas Com in Rio - getting away from this thoroughly miserable on-off English summer...
11 Aug 2008
Americas Com: fixed, mobile and integrated telcos converge on Rio de Janeiro
I was interested to see Cellular News today picking up a recent Signals Telecom Consulting report on the implementation and effects of Mobile Number Portability across Latin America and the Caribbean. This is a timely read for me as I gear up for our Americas Com conference next month in Rio de Janeiro. We ran the conference successfully as 'GSM Americas' for 12 years, working to gather delegates from all over South and Central America for two days of networking and the opportunity to benchmark strategies and technology choices with colleagues from comparable markets. I have only been personally involved in the conference since mid-2007 and really enjoyed last year's iteration, which we held in December, also in Rio. If Americas Com is at all typical of a South American telecoms industry conference, I'd say that visitors from outside the region would be pleasantly surprised at how readily delegates there get stuck into the post-presentation Q&A sessions, the offline networking in the exhibition - anything which presents an opportunity to discuss rather than merely absorb the words of the great and the good up on the conference podium.
While much of the value of the region's telecoms sector continues to be in mobile, our analysts' excellent output reminds us that cellular markets in Latin America are maturing fast towards the point of saturation. Mobile operators may soon find it tougher to grow their businesses by acquiring wholly new customers, even in some of the region's less affluent countries. It remains to be seen whether there will be a good level of solvent demand for ARPU-boosting value-added services. Many operators must believe there will be.
Given the scale of recent investments in 3G networks and HSPA in markers such as Argentina, Brazil and Chile, operators will be hoping that lower levels of fixed-line teledensity and PC penetration will enable them to position 3G devices as the most pervasive means of accessing the Internet and participating fully in the information society. I'm not in the business on this blog of making predictions. My role as a facilitator of networking between telecoms operator execs worldwide (and their suppliers, partners etc.) does not really qualify me to to do so. However, I do need to be mindful of for how long it will be relevant (and profitable!) for us to assemble a group drawn solely from the celluar space. My reasoning is that with 3G networks already deployed and markets becoming quite mature, we need to watch out for any possibility of a future period of slower mobile operator CAPEX - or even just a dearth of hot topics around which to hang a compelling conference agenda. So we have needed to find a way of connecting our event sponsors with BOTH our loyal, core group of mobile sector execs AND a potentially much larger group from every other kind of telecoms service provider.
Happily, a logical and topical conference agenda is possible under these circumstance. All over the world (albeit moving at different speeds) we see the blurring of the once very sharp distinction between the mobile and fixed line worlds. We see telecoms operators with both fixed and mobile networks/business units seeing opportunities not only to make cost savings but also to achieve effective differentiation by blending their wired and wireless offerings. We see 'mobile only' players looking for partners in the wired world in order to compete in this new FMC space. We see 'fixed only' service providers wondering if they can survive long-term with no mobility proposition. All of this is made possible by the development of convergence-friendly IP core networks and the coming together of wireless access technology standards.
It has therefore been quite straightforward to gather speaker panels and groups of delegates which reflect these convergence trends at our Com World Series events. Americas Com 2008 is no exception. We will be welcoming the usual great speaker line-up from major mobile operators such as TIM Brasil, Ancel, Movistar Chile, Iusacell and Claro Brasil. What's new for 2008 is the presence of a really diverse spread of other kinds of telco:
While much of the value of the region's telecoms sector continues to be in mobile, our analysts' excellent output reminds us that cellular markets in Latin America are maturing fast towards the point of saturation. Mobile operators may soon find it tougher to grow their businesses by acquiring wholly new customers, even in some of the region's less affluent countries. It remains to be seen whether there will be a good level of solvent demand for ARPU-boosting value-added services. Many operators must believe there will be.
Given the scale of recent investments in 3G networks and HSPA in markers such as Argentina, Brazil and Chile, operators will be hoping that lower levels of fixed-line teledensity and PC penetration will enable them to position 3G devices as the most pervasive means of accessing the Internet and participating fully in the information society. I'm not in the business on this blog of making predictions. My role as a facilitator of networking between telecoms operator execs worldwide (and their suppliers, partners etc.) does not really qualify me to to do so. However, I do need to be mindful of for how long it will be relevant (and profitable!) for us to assemble a group drawn solely from the celluar space. My reasoning is that with 3G networks already deployed and markets becoming quite mature, we need to watch out for any possibility of a future period of slower mobile operator CAPEX - or even just a dearth of hot topics around which to hang a compelling conference agenda. So we have needed to find a way of connecting our event sponsors with BOTH our loyal, core group of mobile sector execs AND a potentially much larger group from every other kind of telecoms service provider.
Happily, a logical and topical conference agenda is possible under these circumstance. All over the world (albeit moving at different speeds) we see the blurring of the once very sharp distinction between the mobile and fixed line worlds. We see telecoms operators with both fixed and mobile networks/business units seeing opportunities not only to make cost savings but also to achieve effective differentiation by blending their wired and wireless offerings. We see 'mobile only' players looking for partners in the wired world in order to compete in this new FMC space. We see 'fixed only' service providers wondering if they can survive long-term with no mobility proposition. All of this is made possible by the development of convergence-friendly IP core networks and the coming together of wireless access technology standards.
It has therefore been quite straightforward to gather speaker panels and groups of delegates which reflect these convergence trends at our Com World Series events. Americas Com 2008 is no exception. We will be welcoming the usual great speaker line-up from major mobile operators such as TIM Brasil, Ancel, Movistar Chile, Iusacell and Claro Brasil. What's new for 2008 is the presence of a really diverse spread of other kinds of telco:
- state or co-operative-owned telcos from Andean markets - such as Bolivia's COTEL and Ecuador's ETAPA
- cablers such as Mexico's Cablecom
- competitive broadband/voice carriers such as Mexican Alestra
Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires have been among the better locations for this annual conference, but one effect of hosting the event either in Brazil or a Conosur location has been making it challenging to draw participants from Andean countries and Central America. So it has been really gratifying to confirm the participation of companies from both these important regions.
So with about 4 weeks to go before Americas Com 2008, we are excited by the diversity of the audience we have assembled - and to see that numbers are tracking ahead of the delegate booking pattern for 2007.
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