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3G Latin America: Next Generation Service Take Off
Business Monitor International, May 2009, Pages: 45
BMI assesses the impact of 3G launches on the Latin America mobile market and considers the prospects for the region's operators.
Undoubtedly, 2008 was the year for 3G in Latin America. While Chile and Argentina, often ahead of neighbouring markets, had already seen launches take place in 2007, there was a flurry of 3G network contracts and launches seen in 2008, principally driven by the region’s largest mobile operator América Móvil. Only Argentina, one of the markets covered by BMI, has reached 100% penetration, countries such as Peru and Mexico far from reaching that point. However, there is demand for more advanced services despite many areas of the region being without access to any telecoms services.
The first official 3G launch in Latin America took place in Chile in December 2006, with the mobile unit of fixed-line operator Entel launching a GSM-based UMTS network. It was quickly followed by its local rivals Claro, a unit of América Móvil, and Telefónica's Movistar.
Shortly after, Argentina saw its first 3G launch when locally owned Telecom Personal launched in Buenos Aires in May 2007, while Movistar launched just two months later. In Argentina Claro was the last to launch but swiftly made up for this by expanding its coverage beyond the reaches of its rivals.
Claro's decision to delay its launch in Argentina appears to have been a strategic one given its quick expansion of services. The size of Latin American countries makes the deployment of networks challenging. Most 3G is available in major cities and the capitals, where take-up is likely to be strongest, particularly among corporate subscribers.
In many markets 3G services were principally aimed at postpaid subscribers that would be most likely to take up mobile data services. However, with such a high incidence of prepaid subscribers in Latin America, this strategy would have constrained the growth of 3G services in the region. Instead of focusing on just postpaid subscribers and the corporate market, mobile operators in Latin America have looked towards the large number of young subscribers in these markets who predominantly use prepaid services but are also likely to be early adopters of new technology.
América Móvil has been at the forefront of this with its 'Ideas' portal ('Idéias' in Brazil) offering a range of music to download as well as games and images that can be played on the latest handsets. The websites are different in each country, with top 10 music and game download charts showing the most popular at any time. The site also offers some free downloads to help encourage the use of such services.
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