Natcom launches operations, connects calls with Vietnam - Haiti

Natcom, a joint venture between Vietnamese mobile operator Viettel and Haitian state telco Teleco, has officially launched operations by establishing long-distance calls between Haiti and Vietnam, according to a Viettel press release.

To date, Natcom has deployed five base stations in Haiti, but to meet international calling demands, it plans to build 1,000 additional stations in 2011. Natcom currently provides telecom services such as fixed telephony and ADSL internet.

In May, Viettel won a bid to enter a private-public partnership with Teleco, after the latter's network was nearly destroyed by the January earthquake in Haiti. The deal closed in September, with Viettel gaining a 60% stake in Natcom and the Vietnamese company providing an initial investment of US$59mn. Shortly after, Natcom began rebuilding infrastructure and installing new equipment.

Prior to its partnership in Haiti, Viettel had invested in ventures in Cambodia and Laos. According to the company, it recently won an investment license in Mozambique as well.

Roundup: ICE, OUR, Qualcomm - Regional

Costa Rican state telco ICE is offering customers that still use its legacy TDMA network free handsets in return for their migration to GSM or 3G, ICE said in a statement.

ICE is upping its campaign in January with a view to completely switch off its TDMA network in February.

Customers that migrate would be able to conserve their phone numbers and any monetary guarantees paid or balance in their accounts would automatically be transferred.

ICE began encouraging TDMA customers to migrate in December, with raffles for concert tickets and soccer matches. Currently some 39,000 of ICE's 3mn mobile customer base still use TDMA phones.

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Jamaica's Telecommunications Appeals Tribunal has upheld a decision by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) that forces mobile operator Claro to discontinue the practice of automatically diverting calls from competitor Digicel's telemarketers to the voicemail boxes of Claro customers, OUR said in a statement.

The OUR ruled on June 14 last year that Claro's action contravened section 29 of the Telecommunications Act 2000, which obliges carriers to provide interconnection between their networks.

Claro, of America Movil (NYSE: AMX), had appealed the decision. The tribunal's ruling was effective as of December 14.

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US chipmaker Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) has entered a definitive agreement to acquire wireless technologies company Atheros Communications (Nasdaq: ATHR) for US$3.1bn, Qualcomm said in a statement.

The acquisition is intended to help accelerate the expansion of Qualcomm's technologies and platforms to new businesses beyond cellular. Atheros provides technologies for wireless and wired local area connectivity in the computing, networking and consumer electronics industries.

The transaction has been approved by the Qualcomm and Atheros boards and is subject to customary closing conditions. It is expected to close in the first half of 2011.

"We see this strategy as central to helping our customers capitalize on the ubiquitous connectivity and seamless experiences that are developing across mobile phones, computing and consumer electronics," said Steve Mollenkopf, EVP and group president of Qualcomm.

Roundup: IR Comunicaciones, TSTT, Cantv - Regional

Universidad de La Punta (ULP) in Argentina's San Luis province has awarded three contracts to IR Comunicaciones to install WiFi equipment and provide support for its so-called information highway, the San Luis government said on its website.

The total value of IR Comunicaciones' three contracts - which includes installing WiFi antennas, point-multipoint links to the WiMax backbone, and supporting and maintaining the existing network - is 8.37mn pesos (US$2.1mn).

ULP previously announced that San Luis had the country's highest internet penetration, with around 90% of the population regularly connecting, helped by the province's free WiFi network.

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A website that Miami-based The Factory Interactive (TFI) deployed for Trinidad and Tobago state telecoms incumbent TSTT has resulted in record-breaking sales, TFI said in a statement.

TSTT commissioned TFI to handle everything from design to e-commerce applications for bmobile, its mobile division.

"We effectively extended the bmobile brand into the global marketplace, and developed previously unexplored revenue streams through the implementation of e-commerce," TFI's VP Joshua Hancik said.

Via the new web site, bmobile customers with internet plans can purchase ringtones, wallpapers, MP3s and videos, and bill them to their accounts.

The site features flash-streaming video, real-time pricing information, location finders and other interactive elements.

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Venezuela's state telecoms company Cantv and the telecoms technical committee MTT have inaugurated a community connectivity center in the Lobatera municipality in Tachira state, Cantv said in a statement.

The center has 10 computers, internet connection and four phone installations. The center is the third of its kind in this area.

Venezuela's Simon Bolivar national connectivity plan includes setting up community access centers in underserved areas around the country.

Claro invests US$244mn in 2010 - Dominican R.

Dominican Republic telecoms operator Claro - part of the America Movil (NYSE: AMX) group - invested more than 9bn pesos (US$244mn) in the telecoms market during 2010, local newspaper Listin Diario reported.

The company said its investments allowed it to increase the number of active phone lines and grow its network, expanding beyond the communities where it had previously been present.

Claro highlighted the introduction of new products and services to the Dominican market, such as new lines of smartphones, 3G network access, video calls, and mobile and internet TV.

Claro also underlined its corporate social responsibility program in the country, supporting education though programs focused on providing technology and connectivity to different population segments.

Mobile tower sharing, leasing seen surging to 49k in 2015 - Regional

The number of mobile phone antenna towers that are shared or leased to third parties in Latin America could expand at a 20% CAGR from 2010-15, reaching 49,000, ABI Research practice director Aditya Kaul told BNamericas.

According to Kaul, in Latin America today there are some 350,000 mobile phone towers, of which about 19,000 are shared between operators or owned by companies other than the operators themselves. Of that 19,000, only 3,000 are owned by third parties, and in that space American Tower Corporation (NYSE: AMT) is the predominant player.

American Tower Corporation CEO Jim Taiclet has said Latin America forms part of a three-area plan to buy up towers in areas including South Central Asia and some countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The company currently owns and operates more than 32,000 communications sites in the US, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru and India.

According to Kaul, the business model can be very profitable. Building a tower can cost some US$100,000, and the company can rent the tower out for roughly half that amount per year.

Tower leasing is driven forward by competitive pressure to cut operating costs and keep up with the pace of innovation in services. Spain's Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) started the trend in Latin America as it sought to generate capital for investing in 3G networks.

Tower leasing has not been done in every country just for business reasons but because of a regulatory mandate. In India, tower sharing makes economic sense in certain isolated areas, where deployment is expensive. China and Japan prohibit the practice. Tower sharing is uncommon in Europe, where operators are hesitant to lose a competitive edge in terms of coverage.

Besides the initial US$100,000 capex to build the tower, operators have to factor in maintenance costs, electric power costs and, in the cases of antennas powered by generators, transport costs to bring in diesel to fuel the generators. In some areas in Africa, security is a major issue, and guards must be hired to protect the sites from theft.

As more sites are leased, the overall opex will come down, Kaul said.

Worldwide, about 17% of all towers are leased, and ABI Research expects that number to rise to about 25% in 2015. The trend is most pronounced in the US and India (where it is driven by low Arpu and high levels of competition), but Latin America and Africa offer the greatest potential, Kaul said.