CANTO Weekly Newsletter – BNamericas 06/17/16

Jamaica’s largest mobile operator Digicel has launched the island’s first commercial 4G LTE network following a 6bn Jamaican dollar (US$50mn) investment.

Digicel has over 2mn customers of which 1.3mn are smartphone users, the company said in a statement.

The network was launched over the 700MHz band, for which Digicel won a license in 2014. The company has already invested over US$1bn in Jamaica since 2001, Digicel Jamaica’s CEO David Butler said.

In February, Phillip Paulwell, minister of science, technology, energy and mining, said the Jamaican government is considering granting a third mobile telecommunications license.

Jamaica previously had three operators, but América Móvil’s Claro unit was acquired by Digicel in 2011, leaving only Digicel and Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC).

Last month, CWC announced that its Flow brand had begun rolling out 4G LTE technology, after winning AWS spectrum last April.

Liberty Global completed the acquisition in May of CWC.

Panama tenders public Wi-Fi network – Panama

Panama has launched a tender for a contract to deploy a public access Wi-Fi network covering three regions and costing up to US$21.6mn.

Offers will be received until July 27. The reference price includes installation and activation of the service. The project is part of a plan to build out a national internet network (RNI) and will be financed by Panama’s universal access fund.

In awarding the contract, authorities will take into account the number of hotspots the bidder offers to deploy, the cost, and broadband speed. The bidding rules specify broadband speeds of up to 2Mbps per user.

For further details contact Luis Carlos Moran at +507-5179560, lmoran@innovacion.gob.pa or see bidding documents here.

Telefónica and Fortinet announce strategic alliance agreement to offer managed security services – Regional

Madrid/Sunnyvale, Calif. – June 15, 2016 – Telefónica, one of the world’s leading providers of communications services and solutions, and Fortinet®, a global leader in high-performance cyber security solutions, today announced a strategic alliance agreement that will add Fortinet’s Security Fabric architecture into Telefonica’s portfolio of managed security services.

The agreement underscores Fortinet as a strategic security infrastructure partner to deliver solutions integrated with some of Telefónica’s key managed security services, which include, the CleanPipes service, ElevenPath’s FAAST persistent pentesting and virtual patching solution, and ElevenPath’s Metashield Protector service.

Fortinet is the security infrastructure provider used for all Telefónica’s CleanPipes deployments worldwide today and will continue to be a part of the evolution of the service architecture. Telefónica customers will benefit from the combination of Telefónica’s strategic security services and Fortinet’s Security Fabric, which delivers pervasive and adaptive cybersecurity from IoT to the cloud.

Security without compromise designed to provide peace of mind for customers

Increasing awareness of the cybersecurity risks facing businesses, a security talent challenge, and growing compliance enforcement are prompting businesses of all sizes to migrate risk out of their IT departments and into the hands of professionals.

While technology trends like IoT and cloud computing are blurring the edges of the network today, Fortinet’s Security Fabric, combined with ElevenPaths’ products and security services from Telefonica enables customers to benefit from a scalable, broad threat protection solution without compromising agility or performance. Telefonica customers can leverage highly advanced hardware and software, enabling direct communication between security solutions for a unified and rapid response to threats. In addition, the Fortinet Security Fabric, powered by the FortiASIC content processor and FortiOS security operating system enables customers to implement internal segmentation and other innovative security strategies to deliver comprehensive threat protection across the expanding attack surface.

Telefónica’s comprehensive security approach leverages the services and technology that have gained them recognition as a security solutions thought leader. In-house innovations are combined with strategic partnerships to deliver a complete managed information security offering. This allows customers to achieve business-critical security objectives while keeping operating costs predictable and helping busy IT teams stay ahead of security issues.

Patrice Perche, senior executive vice president, Worldwide Sales and Support, Fortinet, commented:

“We have worked together with Telefónica for nearly 15 years. This successful partnership is the result of our shared goal – to provide the security technologies customers need to protect and grow their businesses. As Telefónica expands their coverage areas, network service offerings, and customer base, they need a security partner to help them still maintain high performance at scale without business disruption. Their extensive experience in security and communication networks, expert workforce and development of intelligence-driven managed security services means their customers are in safe hands.”

Pedro Pablo Pérez, ElevenPaths’ CEO and Telefónica Global Security Managing Director, commented: “Our customers face a shortage in security talent today as well as stringent regulations and compliance requirements. This is compounded by an ever-changing cyber threat landscape. In order to succeed, they are turning to partners to help them implement the processes and technology required. A critical differentiation that Telefónica and Fortinet provide to customers is adaptive and intelligent security technology. Fortinet’s Security Fabric combined with Telefónica’s ElevenPaths products provides a cohesive, intelligent security offering that sees and protects distributed environments, which means they can build and enforce seamless and consistent security policy on local and cloud networks, or across advanced architectures.”

About Fortinet

Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) secures the largest enterprise, service provider, and government organizations around the world. Fortinet empowers its customers with intelligent, seamless protection across the expanding attack surface and the power to take on ever-increasing performance requirements of the borderless network – today and into the future. Only the Fortinet Security Fabric architecture can deliver security without compromise to address the most critical security challenges, whether in networked, application, cloud or mobile environments. More than 270,000 customers worldwide trust Fortinet to protect their businesses. Learn more at http://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog, or FortiGuard Labs.

About ElevenPaths

At ElevenPaths we believe in the idea of challenging the current state of security, an attribute that must always be present in technology. We’re always redefining the relationship between security and people, with the aim of creating innovative security products which can transform the concept of security, thus keeping us one step ahead of attackers, who are increasingly present in our digital life.

www.elevenpaths.com

@ElevenPaths

blog.elevenpaths.com

Honduras launches first IXP – Honduras

Honduras has launched the country’s first internet exchange point (IXP), telecoms regulator Conatel said in a release.

An executive committee made up of Conatel, internet service providers, universities, government and non-government institutions and telecoms operators will be in charge of managing the IXP, dubbed IXP-HN.

UNAH university has been chosen to host IXP-HN, given its communications and security infrastructure and because it will act as a neutral partner for all using the IXP.

The primary purpose of an IXP is to allow networks to interconnect directly, via the exchange, rather than through one or more third-party networks (often routed through the US).

The primary advantages are lower costs and latency and better bandwidth availability, given that content is brought closer to the user. IXPs also encourage the development of local content.

At the end of May, Paraguay state telco Copaco, in collaboration with the national computing center and local systems integrator Teisa, launched that nation’s first IXP.

LatAm and Caribbean FDI drops to 5-year low – Regional

Driven by the external shock of falling commodity prices, along with slower economic growth in the region, foreign direct investment in Latin America and the Caribbean declined 9.1% last year to US$179bn, the lowest level since 2010, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac).

In a report released on Wednesday, the UN body attributed the drop in investment to mining and hydrocarbons, and an economic slowdown in the region, particularly in Brazil, which is in recession.

For the current year, Eclac projects that FDI will drop by up to 8%, in line with the region’s economic downturn.

The decline in the region contrasts with a 36% increase in global FDI to US$1.7tn, the highest level since 2007, driven by cross-border M&As centered mainly on the United States. The private sector’s high levels of liquidity, the strong appreciation of the dollar and the recovery of the US economy were factors in this growth, Eclac said.

The falling prices of commodities negatively affected the region. Chile saw FDI fall 8% and Colombia witnessed a 26% decline, due to slumping mineral prices. Brazil saw FDI slide 23% to US$75bn, but continues to receive the largest slice of the capital in the region (42% of the total).

Mexico, the second highest FDI recipient in the LAC region, posted an 18% increase to US$30.3bn, with the manufacturing, automobile and telecom sectors receiving most of the inflows.

Argentina’s FDI grew 130% to US$11.7bn, an increase explained by the nationalization of oil company YPF in 2014, which meant a divestment of US$6bn that year.

Central America’s FDI grew 6% to US$11.8bn led by Panama, with 43% of the total; followed by Costa Rica (26%), Honduras and Guatemala (both with 10%).

The Eclac study highlights an important change in the region’s planned projects announced in 2005-15, with less emphasis on extractive sectors and the increasing relevance of the auto, telecom and retail sectors, as well as renewable energy projects.

The United States is the main source of clearly-identified FDI in Latin America and the Caribbean, accounting for 25.9% of the inflow. The Netherlands, where a lot of companies are headquartered for tax purposes, is second with 15.9%, followed by Spain with 11.8% of the total.

“Investments in renewable energies and other environmental projects are at the heart of Eclac’s proposal for a big environmental push to drive the region’s development toward low-carbon production, energy and consumption patterns,” said Eclac executive secretary Alicia Bárcena in the report.

The information presented and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of CANTO and/or its members