CANTO Weekly Newsletter – BNamericas 11/21/14

Mobile solutions reaching 15% of Citrix LatAm revenue – Regional

CWC overpaid by US$1bn for Columbus International – Digicel – Regional

Costa Rica’s Sutel starts registering pre-paid mobile users – Costa Rica

Latin America to have nearly 600mn smartphones by 2020 – Ericsson – Regional

The process currently takes 72 hours, but starting December 1 it will be reduced by a day. Once the user files the request, the operator will have 24 hours to verify its validity and another 24 for the new operator to coordinate the transfer of the number.

Prepaid mobile phone users are required to register their details with Sutel from December 1, in order to avoid identity theft.

Mobile solutions reaching 15% of Citrix LatAm revenue – Regional Mobility application products such as mobile device management (MDM) represent some 10-15% of IT services provider Citrix’s revenues in Latin America as companies increasingly adopt bring your own device (BYOD), Juan Manuel Gómez, Citrix’s sales manager for southern Latin America (SOLA) told BNamericas.

According to Gómez, the fact that more and more employees have smartphones has positive and negative implications. The positive side is increased productivity in the field and the ability to share information on the corporate network.

The negative side is the security risk with employees potentially being able to copy and paste sensitive corporate information and sharing it.

There is also a danger of mixing personal and corporate information when using the same device. For example, top executives may not want to share their whereabouts, when at a work related or non-work related event, which is something that social networks often do automatically.

With MDM, companies can configure devices and networks to suit their businesses, to tailor the type of information that can be shared and to make sure personal and business use on the same device does not get mixed together unintentionally.

“The CIO of Twitter may not want to share his geographic location even though he has just responded to a message. This can be configured. You can control the personal side of communications to avoid it conflicting with your work life,” Gómez said.

This can be particularly important in sectors like financial services that have strict compliance requirements, Gómez said.

A new study by consultancy IDC showed that 30% of Latin American companies have more than half of their workforce working remotely using their mobile devices.

However, the data also showed that only 47% of Latin American companies that allow their employees to use their own devices for work purposes have an MDM platform in place.

CWC overpaid by US$1bn for Columbus International – Digicel – Regional UK-based Cable & Wireless Communications paid US$1bn too much for Caribbean, Central and South American telecom provider Columbus International, rival Digicel said in a press release.

“Digicel can confirm that it looked at Columbus Communications several months ago and that it was Digicel’s assessment that the value of Columbus Communications was no more than US$2bn,” the company said.

CWC announced earlier this month it would purchase Columbus International for US$1.85bn, plus assume Columbus’ US$1.17bn debt.

The Digicel comment was made in response to CWC’s remarks that the Jamaica-based company was suffering from “sour grapes” regarding its decision to acquire the operator. CWC CEO Phil Bentley made the remark when Digicel announced it would be pushing for a rigorous review of the merger by regulators.

“The assertion by [CWC] that Digicel is suffering from ‘sour grapes’ couldn’t be further from the truth as the reality is Digicel was not prepared to over-pay for the business – unlike Cable & Wireless,” said the statement.

Costa Rica’s Sutel starts registering pre-paid mobile users – Costa Rica Costa Rica’s telecoms regulator Sutel will start a registry of pre-paid cell phone users to avoid identity theft and extortion, the watchdog announced in a press release.

Users will be able to register their details and account on a website set up by Sutel, where they can be cross-checked by the electoral tribunal. The website will be up on December 1, the release said.

By having an updated register of all prepaid users, Sutel hopes to avoid identity theft, although Sutel spokesperson Ivannia Morales told newspaper El Financiero that it will not yet be able to protect against users making transactions under somebody else’s name.

Sutel invested 56mn colones (US$104,000) in the platform, helped by IT security firm Corte Inglés.

Latin America to have nearly 600mn smartphones by 2020 – Ericsson – Regional The number of smartphone subscriptions in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is expected to reach 595mn by 2020, for a 15% annual growth rate, and represent 66% of all cell phones, according to Ericsson’s latest Mobility Report.

At the end of Q3, LAC had 270mn smartphones, accounting for 36.5% of all mobiles, the figures show.

Meanwhile, overall mobile subscriptions are seen reaching 900mn in 2020. At end-Q3, they were at 740mn – 10% of the world’s total – for a 115% penetration rate.

Brazil and Mexico together accounted for over half, and 80% of all mobile subscriptions are concentrated in seven countries, according to the report.

Some 60% of the region still uses 2G, which should remain the main technology at least until 2016, after what 3G should finally become dominant. The report says 65% of the LAC population will be covered by LTE networks by 2020, compared to 20% now.

In terms of subscriptions, LTE should represent over 250mn, or 30% of the total, in 2020.

Ericsson says the amount of mobile data traffic in the region should reach 1,800 pettabytes per month in the next six years, up 300% from today, which represents 35% average annual growth.

Globally, 90% of the world’s population will have a cell phone by 2020, and smartphone subscriptions will reach 6.1bn, the report shows. This year will see 800mn new smartphone subscriptions for a worldwide total of 2.7bn – but sill 37% of all mobile subscriptions, according to the report.

5G

Ericsson forecasts 5G will be implemented commercially in 2020. Also, the technology will have a faster adoption rate than 4G/LTE, just like 4G/LTE had in relation to 3G.

In the company’s view, 5G will bundle evolved versions of existing radio technologies (like 3G and 4G), cloud and new core. The growth should be largely driven by the Internet-of-Things.