Friday, April 18, 2014

 

Roundup: Level 3, Embratel, Indotel – Regional

The Argentine subsidiary of global IP connectivity solutions provider Level 3 (NYSE: LVLT) has been awarded ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011 certification for its Advanced Security Testing (AST) services in eight countries where the company has operations.

The ISO/IEC 20000 is a global standard for IT service management systems. The AST services are provided in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela and the US.

“Being awarded the ISO/IEC 20000 for our AST services is a great accomplishment for Level 3 given that very few certifications have been awarded in all of Latin America,” said Leonardo Barbero, senior vice president and CMO for Level 3 in Latin America.

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Brazilian travel agency CVC has contracted fixed line operator Embratel to deploy voice and internet services throughout its Brazilian operations.

Embratel, which is the Brazilian operation of América Móvil (NYSE: AMX), will deploy a digital backbone stretching to 35 stores and two administrative centers.

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Dominican Republic telecoms regulator Indotel has opened a new digital center to monitor security in tourist hubs, according to an Indotel statement.

The equipment will be used to train staff of the country’s Tourist Security Specialized Corps (CESTUR), formerly called Tourist Police (POLITUR) and will be integrated with the 9-1-1 emergency service.

The center is equipped with 10 computers and five laptops. A new software will also be developed to monitor all the different tourist hubs in the country.

Cybersecurity, greater internet representation top LatAm claims at global internet forum – Regional

Latin American nations are pushing for more countries to have a say in how the internet is managed, saying that internet governance should be regionally tuned and cybersecurity must be dealt with.

Those are among the key issues many countries want tackling at a high-profile global internet-governance forum to be held in Brazil on April 23-24.

As well as the internationalization of functions from internet protocol coordinators ICANN and IANA – the dominant claim at the forum, some countries want to put co-related topics under the spotlight at the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance.

Forty-six countries have submitted 188 content proposals, which came from governments, academic and technical communities and the general public.

An official draft document containing details of the issues countries wanting raising was leaked by Wikileaks.

Brazil is co-hosting the event in São Paulo with partner countries including the US, which submitted 31 out of the 188 proposals.

Latin American nations accounted for 27, or around 15% of the requests, with Brazil, 16, and Argentina, six, the biggest contributors.

Mexico submitted two and Colombia, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago one each.

LATAM PROPOSALS

Most Latin American contributions focused on the two main issues to be addressed by the conference: internet principles and a roadmap for future governance of the web.

Mexico’s domain and IP addresses authority NIC.mx was one of the many entities that called for the internationalization of ICANN and IANA functions.

Costa Rica’s Internet Society (ISOC), meanwhile, said that multi-stakeholder internet participation was necessary at regional and local levels.

Trinidad and Tobago called for “effective participation” of small countries and in particular those of Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

Argentina’s Universidad Nacional de San Luis proposal addressed inter-state cyberspace relations, while Colombia’s domain entity (CO Internet) outlined issues regarding cyber-security in a highly interconnected and technologically evolving world.

All proposals can be accessed here.

REMOTE HUBS

Parallel to the conference, NETmundial is also preparing remote hubs to allow real-time interaction with the event in Sao Paulo. A total 33 spots, in 30 cities of 23 countries are confirmed. The remote transmissions will take place mostly in tech companies or civil society institutions.

In Latin America, remote hubs are confirmed in Buenos Aires, Quito, Santo Domingo, Asunción, Port of Spain and Montevideo.

Dominican Republic telcos object to approval of Orange acquisition – Dominican R.

Dominican Republic telcos Claro and Viva filed a complaint against sector regulator Indotel for approving the sale of Orange Dominicana to the Luxembourg-based telecoms group Altice.

Altice is seeking “economic control over the telecoms sector” and the deal “violates rules of free enterprise,” giving Altice unfair competition in the sector, news service TeleGeography reported the telcos as saying in the complaint.

In November 2013, Altice reached an agreement with French telco Orange (NYSE: ORAN) to buy 100% of the latter’s Dominican Republic mobile subsidiary Orange Dominicana for approximately US$1.4bn.

In the same month, Altice’s subsidiary Altice Caribbean signed a deal to take over 88% of multi-service cable-TV provider Tricom.

Indotel approved both deals in March and April of this year, respectively, and has rejected both objections to the acquisition approvals.

Altice CEO Patrick Drahi said in December 2013 that Tricom and Orange Dominicana will be merged after the two takeovers have been finalized, according to TeleGeography.

Orange Dominicana held a share of roughly 40% of the Dominican Republic mobile market, with Claro holding approximately 50% while Viva and Tricom made up the balance.

Digicel sells 60,000 own-brand smartphones – Jamaica

Caribbean telco Digicel has sold more than 60,000 of its own-brand smartphones since their launch, according to local paper The Gleaner.

Digicel launched the DL600 smartphone in 2Q13 and the DL700 in December last year.

“We now have nearly 1mn active users using data on their mobile phones in Jamaica, and we experienced a greater than 150% increase in subscribers on our fourth-generation network using data in our last financial year,” CEO Barry O’Brien said.

The company is currently upgrading 187 sites to 4G in order to increase coverage from 80% to 92%.

Digicel, an Irish-owned mobile operator based in Jamaica, plans to invest approximately US$500mn in 2014 to expand its networks throughout Central America and the Caribbean.

CWC to launch 4G LTE in Antigua and Barbuda – Caribbean

Cable & Wireless Communications’ (CWC) LIME Antigua and Barbuda will launch a 4G LTE service after being awarded a spectrum license.

Download speeds for online services and applications in the country are expected to be over 50 times faster than they are at present, CWC said.

The 4G LTE network will support the government’s objective of improving access to the internet and online resources, the company added.

CWC provides 4G LTE service in the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas and Monaco.