Atlantic Tele-Network slates US$105mn-120mn in capex - Caribbean, Guyana

Atlantic Tele-Network (Nasdaq: ATNI), a telecoms operator with assets in the Caribbean, is expecting capex in the range of US$105mn-120mn this year, company CEO Michael Prior said during a conference call with investors.

That amount is down from the US$135mn seen in 2010, which was elevated due to the acquisition of US wireless provider Alltel.

Some US$70mn-80mn of capex will go to the US business. Of that amount, some US$30mn is destined to consolidating Alltel, while other amounts are being assigned to network expansion on legacy wholesale assets, Prior said.

The company posted a 226% rise in revenues in the fourth quarter to US$195mn with wireless services accounting for US$164mn, or 84% of the total.

ATN operates incumbent GT&T in Guyana and has operations in Bermuda, Turks and Caicos and the US Virgin Islands. It also recently acquired a wireless service provider in Aruba.

The company's international wireless revenues include retail and wholesale voice and data wireless from operations in Bermuda and the Caribbean, including Guyana. Total revenues from international wireless - including revenues from fixed wireless data services - amounted to US$14mn in the quarter, an increase of 21%, over the US$11.6mn a year earlier.

This increase resulted from growth in wireless subscribers in Guyana and expansion in the Caribbean.

Total wireline revenues - including operations in Guyana and the US - totaled US$19.9mn, down 9% year-on-year.

The decline resulted from a US$2.4mn decrease in international long distance revenues in Guyana.

World Bank, IDB push for local ICT development - Dominican R., Haiti

Experts from the World Bank (WB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) promoted various ICT initiatives to push development in Haiti and the Dominican Republic at a workshop held in Santo Domingo, according to local media El Nuevo Diario.

Global telecoms specialist in the World Bank's ICT department Juan Navas-Sabater and institutional specialist at IDB Silvana Rubino-Hallman spoke about these on the topic of connectivity infrastructure and ICT for local and regional development.

One of the major initiatives the experts pushed for was driving connectivity between the island-sharing nations by landing a submarine fiber optic cable in Haiti, with fiber optic terrestrial connections to the Dominican Republic.

The officials promoted creating a competitive software industry in Haiti through access and training programs, as well as investments.

Another initiative Rubino-Hallman and Navas-Sabater highlighted was establishing a virtual public network to connect public entities, schools, health centers and municipalities in the countries. The experts announced IDB and World Bank's plans to work together on an integrated network solution for the two countries.

They advocated for the countries to develop adequate regulatory frameworks and to drive the ICT industry and its competitiveness. Rubino-Hallman and Navas-Sabater also discussed the need to stimulate economic development in the border zone between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, noting that ICT should play a critical role in the countries' national development plans.

Although the experts harped on the unequal development of ICT on the island, they recognized the high growth in mobile telephony. However, they noted low broadband penetration, hindered by lack of international competition and limited connectivity. Additionally, they said despite the significant improvements in ICT infrastructure, disparities still exist.

The event, held February 28 and March 1, was organized by IDB and the World Bank in collaboration with Dominican Republic's telecoms regulator, Indotel, and participation from the ministry of public works, transport and communications and Haitian regulator Conatel.

Atlantic Tele-Network "looking seriously" at LTE - Caribbean

Atlantic Tele-Network (Nasdaq: ATNI), a US telecoms operator with assets in the Caribbean, is looking seriously at the LTE option but feels that its current data offerings are sufficiently competitive for the moment, company CEO Michael Prior said during a conference call with investors.

"We're like every carrier, I imagine, looking at it seriously. One of the questions with LTE is the mix of whether it gives you a competitive advantage or not, in terms of customer offerings. I think it's early for that, particularly in our markets," Prior said.

"The second question is the capability to handle data loads and whether it improves the overall efficiency of your network and your ability to grow data. We're looking at both of those. In our markets, I think our offering is extremely competitive on the data side today, but you obviously have to do some forward planning," he added.

ATN operates the incumbent GT&T in Guyana as well as having operations in the US, Bermuda, Turks and Caicos and the US Virgin Islands. It also recently acquired a wireless service provider in Aruba.

Exemplary of how the popularity of data is growing, Prior said that 50% of Q4 handset sales, including upgrades in the post-paid segment, were smartphones.

"So a little bit less than a third of our base has smartphones," Prior said.

THE GUYANA SITUATION

Guyana's government has been talking for years about passing legislation to liberalize the country's telecommunications market, in which GT&T has an exclusivity agreement for all segments except mobile.

The latest news, in November, was that the state had sent a copy of the proposed telecoms liberalization bill to GT&T and Irish-owned mobile operator Digicel for comments.

On the issue, Prior said only that "we're still working with the Guyanese government to end exclusivity rights in concert with establishing a new regulatory framework and opening up additional sectors of telecom to competition."

As regards the 1,240km submarine cable system (SG-SCS) linking Suriname and Guyana that GT&T landed in January 2010, Prior said that as a result of the cable, the uptake of wireline usage and data revenues had increased, especially from large enterprises.

"It's not enough to capture some of the declines in legacy wireline, which is mostly long distance. But the uptake been very, very good and in line with our expectations," Prior said.

And with the Aruban telecoms operator - Caribbean Telecom Partners, which ATN acquired last year - Prior said the company had been building out the network and "covering the island quite well."

"It's a good business and cash-flow neutral.... We continue to strengthen our team and commitment to those [island] markets and believe that over the longer term there are still very good opportunities for ATN in the region," Prior said.

Roundup: Porta-Synchronica, Alcatel-Lucent, Global Crossing - Ecuador, Regional

Ecuadorian mobile telephony operator Porta has launched Messenger Porta, a mobile instant messaging service based on and powered by UK mobile email and synchronization solutions provider Synchronica's hosted instant messaging and presence service (IMPS) platform, the latter said in a statement.

In Latin America, Synchronica has an agreement with Porta's parent firm, América Móvil (NYSE: AMX), through which it expects to roll out its infrastructure for all of AMX's 17 Latin American subsidiaries. The company also has regional agreements with Spanish telecoms group Telefónica (NYSE: TEF).

Synchronica is a developer of next-generation mobile messaging solutions. Mobile Gateway, Synchronica's flagship product, provides push email, synchronization, instant messaging, and social networking services.

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French network infrastructure provider Alcatel-Lucent's (NYSE: ALU) enterprise division has appointed John Carr as the unit's new VP for Latin America, the company said in a statement.

The executive will oversee all Latin American markets.

Carr previously worked for Genesys Telecommunications Labs.

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IP connectivity solutions provider Global Crossing (Nasdaq: GLBC) has launched Global Crossing Communications as a Service (CaaS), the first phase of its network-centric, cloud-based solution set, the company said in a statement.

CaaS provides on-demand, pay-as-you-grow capabilities that simplify a business' audio conferencing experience from multiple services to a single-service, cloud-based model.

The service creates a network-centric platform that combines the company's IP virtual private network, session initiated protocol (SIP) trunking, and Ready Access hosted audio conferencing services.

Roundup: TCL, Tierra del Fuego, Telmex - Regional

TCL Communication, the Chinese holding company in charge of the Alcatel mobile phone brand, underscored the importance of growth in Latin America in its 2010 results.

In a results statement, company CEO Guo Aiping said, "The group delivered significantly improved performance across the globe. As part of [our] globalization strategy, we further extended the reach to overseas markets, particularly in the emerging markets such as Africa and Latin America."

Shipments to the Americas in 2010 surged 194% year-on-year to 18.8mn units, making Alcatel the fourth biggest brand in Latin America by market share, the company said.

TCL Communication saw a 30-fold increase year-on-year in global net profit to HK$702mn (US$90.1mn), while revenues rose 100% to HK$8.7bn.

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Argentinean government officials have inspected advances in the installation of fiber optic infrastructure and digital TV transmission sites in the country's Tierra del Fuego province, according the provincial government website.

According the statement, the visit by the planning ministry representatives achieved its objective, which was to reach an agreement between local service providers TV Fuego and TDF Satelital and Argentine satellite company Arsat and to obtain investment commitments.

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Mexican fixed-line telecoms incumbent Telmex (NYSE: TMX), in partnership with the Tlalnepantla local government, has deployed free WiFi hotspots in the municipality.

Tlalnepantla residents can now access Telmex's Infinitum' mobile WiFi service in the Gustavo Baz city square, Telecom Paper reported.