Cable & Wireless teams up with Deezer – Regional
Telefónica to provide new messaging app in LatAm – Regional
TIM ready to roll out IPv6 for corporate segment – Brazil, Regional
New satellites boost O3b Networks capacity – French Guiana, Regional
Roundup: Tecnocom, Level 3, PasajeBus – Regional

Cable & Wireless teams up with Deezer – Regional

UK-based Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) partnered with French music streaming company Deezer.
Under the deal, CWC’s customers in 15 markets in Latin America and the Caribbean will have access to Deezer’s digital music library, with over 35mn tracks, CWC said in a release.
“The Deezer music service will be available to all LIME, BTC and Cable & Wireless Panamá customers across CWC’s 15 markets, and hopefully to Flow customers shortly,” said Phil Bentley, CWC CEO.
Deezer’s music streaming service is now available in more than 35 Latin American and Caribbean markets.

Telefónica to provide new messaging app in LatAm – Regional

Spanish telco giant Telefónica has inked an agreement with Swiss mobile software developer Myriad Group to provide a co-branded instant messaging service in Latin America.
Under the deal, all mobile operators within the Telefónica group in Latin America will be able to offer a co-branded version of Myriad’s social messaging application Msngr.
The Msngr platform allows users to connect on an “easy-to-use, fresh and vibrant interface for unrestricted group chat,” Myriad said in a release.
The app generates revenue by offering sponsored channels with information, movies, music, sport and TV to which the consumer can opt-in. Revenue is then shared with the supporting operator, according to the developer.
Myriad’s worldwide Msngr users grew 52% to 102mn in 3Q14, compared to the same quarter last year.

TIM ready to roll out IPv6 for corporate segment – Brazil, Regional

Brazilian telecom carrier TIM said it is ready to offer IPv6 on a large scale to its corporate customer base, while tests are underway for the mobile and residential markets, the company said in a statement.
The move follows a decision by telecom regulator Anatel according to which all Brazilian operators should be able to adopt IPv6 addresses by July 2015.The deadline was agreed between the regulator, telcos and the country’s internet steering committee CGI.br.
Anatel also said it would only certify equipment and terminals compatible with the new protocol.
The supply of IPv4 addresses, predecessor of IPv6, is technically exhausted in Latin America since June, and only small swaths of IP addresses remain unused.
Latin America ran out of space left to fulfill the request for IPv4 addresses three years after Asia and nearly two years after Europe.
TIM claims it is the first Brazilian operator to prepare its network to provide IPv6 connectivity to clients.
In 2012, corporate customers with compatible devices got access to the IPv6 transit product. While testing is underway for mobile and residential markets, the operator will provide both protocols simultaneously (dual stack). The use of IPv4 or IPv6 will depend on the compatibility of user equipment.
Currently, address sharing mechanisms such as NAT44 or CGNAT have been used as a temporary solution as the pool of available IPv4 addresses runs dry.
According to TIM, only major content providers in Brazil such as Google, Facebook, UOL and Terra have fully adapted their systems to IPv6 content.

New satellites boost O3b Networks capacity – French Guiana, Regional

O3b Networks, a satellite provider aiming to provide cheap broadband in emerging markets, launched on Thursday four new satellites, bringing its total to 12.
The launch, which took place in French Guiana, is the second this year after four satellites were placed in orbit in July, meaning the company has added 80 Gbps of capacity, bringing the total to over 100 Gbps.
The service has limited availability in Latin America but that is due to change following the capacity boost, Omar Trujillo, O3b VP for Latin America and Africa, told BNamericas previously.
In Latin America, O3b has contracts with Ozônio Telecomunicações for Brazil’s Amazon region, Skynet Colombia for the Colombian Amazon as well as with Quark Guyana. It also has a contract with cruise line operator Royal Caribbean.
Last month, O3b said that Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas had become the world’s first “smart” cruise ship, providing full broadband connectivity for passengers.
The company also announced a new high performance service for offshore communications in the Gulf of Mexico.
In October, O3b signed a multi-year agreement with Guyana’s ISP E-Networks, making it the first Latin American client to go live on the O3b network.
CLOSER TO EARTH
The use of O3b satellites, which orbit closer to the Earth than conventional geostationary satellites, reduces latency, increases internet speed and improves voice and video quality.
Trujillo said O3b is eyeing closing deals in Easter Island, Guyana and mainland Chile.
O3b, which stands for the “other 3 billion” people on earth who do not have access to broadband, believes it can provide cheap voice and data connectivity to operators by using the novel approach of placing satellites in medium-earth orbit (MEO), at 8,000km a quarter of the distance from Earth than standard geostationary orbit.
On the launch, O3b CEO Steve Collar said: “Our new satellites will allow our customers to connect digitally disadvantaged populations, enabling online education, e-commerce, telemedicine and cloud based services, to transform businesses, communities and lives.”
The O3b system delivers fiber-like performance, with throughput exceeding 1Gbps per connection and latency comparable with that of terrestrial networks, but retains the flexibility and ubiquity of satellite.
The new satellites will now go through a period of in-orbit testing before being fully integrated into the O3b network early in the new year.
O3b also has contracts in Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa, South Sudan and Papua New Guinea.
The first four satellites were launched in June 2013.

Roundup: Tecnocom, Level 3, PasajeBus – Regional

Spanish technology provider Tecnocom appointed Ernesto Terriquez Ortiz as its new country manager in Mexico.
Terriquez will be in charge of developing Tecnocom’s business in the areas of telecommunications, banking, insurance and the financial sector.
The executive previously held the position of Tecnocom’s sales director for the banking and insurance sectors in Santiago, Chile, a position which he used to strengthen the company’s position in the financial retail and banking segments.
Before that, Terriquez worked with Unisys from 1997 to 2011.
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Satellite communications provider Globalstar selected Level 3 Communications to provide a fully meshed MPLS network for their ground stations across the globe.
“By selecting Level 3’s meshed MPLS architecture, we’re enhancing our reliability to provide optimal service and capabilities for our customers today and with our second generation network deployment in 2015,”said Jay Monroe, CEO of Globalstar.
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PasajeBus, a new bus ticket price comparison app for smartphones, has launched in Chile.
The app allows users to compare prices, timetables and destinations of 14 different bus companies that make up 80% of all terrestrial destinations in Chile.
The app is based on Indian ticket reservation software BITLA Soft.

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