Costa Rica’s state-owned operator is set to face competition for the first time, as the Latin American country has awarded mobile operating licences to Telefonica and America Movil. The two firms won licences with bids of US$95 million and $75 million respectively...

Haiti’s first mobile money service has been launched by Voilà and Unibank, following a successful nine month pilot which provided the international relief and development agency Mercy Corps with a secure, cost-effective method of distributing money across Haiti to support reconstruction efforts...

Around 49 million subscribers to Claro Brazil, the Brazilian subsidiary of América Móvil, will now have access to a device-agnostic mobile IM solution, provided by Synchronica. Named Claro Messenger, the mobile IM service is powered by Synchronica’s hosted instant messaging and presence service (IMPS) platform...

Arianespace has successfully launched Intelsat S.A.’s newest satellite, the Intelsat 17 (IS-17), from Kourou, French Guiana...

The national carrier of Paraguay, Compañía Paraguaya de Comunicaciones S.A. (COPACO S.A.), has connected to iBasis, a wholesale carrier for the exchange of long distance phone calls. The connection makes Paraguay part of a global network spanning over 100 countries and delivering more than 2 billion minutes of international voice traffic every month...

The US Virgin Islands recently witnessed the launch of commercial services – including unlimited voice services and 4G mobile broadband - by Choice Communications...

ITU has dispatched thirty broadband satellite terminals to Haiti as the country prepares for hurricane Tomas...

Nokia Siemens Networks has announced the establishment of its fifth Global Network Operations Centre (GNOC) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This is the first GNOC in the Americas and it aims to serve a growing base of Latin American operators seeking to outsource network operations so that they can focus on core activities of their business. The GNOC will be established with an initial 15 million euro investment and host up to 300 expert technicians, responsible for managing up to 20 million subscribers. The centre will be operational from January 2011...

 Claro Dominicana, the subsidiary of America Movil in the Dominican Republic, has launched a mobile email and synchronisation service based on Synchronica’s Mobile Gateway messaging infrastructure...

 The collaboration between the Mexican media company Grupo Televisa and the mobile operator NII Holdings (Nextel) has come to an abrupt end, with GT scrapping its agreement to purchase a 30% stake in Nextel...

Developing Telecoms takes a look at the market potential of MVNOs in Latin America, where the model faces numerous difficulties despite the massive potential for growth in this burgeoning region...

A new push email service is being launched in Costa Rica by the country’s incumbent operator, Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE). The mass market service, branded Syncronizate, is based on Synchronica’s Mobile Gateway middleware, and will be used to add new push functionality to the existing ICE webmail service Acelera...

Movistar Chile, a subsidiary of Telefonica, will soon be able to offer its subscribers higher peak data rates courtesy of a new, more efficient mobile broadband network...

Haitian operator MultiLink S.A. has extended high-quality data services such as Voice over IP (VoIP) to a large number of subscribers across Haiti. With Nokia Siemens Networks’ microwave radio network, the Caribbean service provider has enhanced its network capacity and coverage...

Mexico’s most recent spectrum auction has awarded the winning bidder with a nationwide allocation of 30MHz in the 1710MHz to 2170MHz frequency band. The winning bid was placed by a partnership between the media company Grupo Televisa and the mobile operator NII Holdings (Nextel)...

Subscribers of Movistar, Argentina’s largest mobile carrier, now have access to Windows Live Messenger Java, a new service which allows clients to use Windows Live Messenger through their mobile phones by downloading a Java-based client from Synchronica...

Telefonica, one of the largest mobile operators in Spain and Latin America, saw its profits rise by 16% in the second quarter of 2010, with a weaker Spanish market being offset by an increase in revenue from Latin America...

Telecom Personal, the mobile subsidiary of Telecom Argentina, has launched a new push email service that will allow consumer, prosumer and business subscribers access to push email and synchronisation services without the need to upgrade or replace their existing mobile handsets...

Belize Telemedia, the only multi-play carrier in Belize, is preparing to launch the nation’s first joint voicemail system, which will be available to both wireline and mobile subscribers...

The ITU is leading an internation effort to speed up reconstruction of Haiti’s crucial telecommunications and ICT infrastructure destroyed in the earthquake of 12 January this year...

Prepaid.com, an online service for recharging the airtime of prepaid mobile phones, now allows anyone, anywhere in the world, to purchase minutes and other prepaid services for any of the more than 70 million Mexican prepaid mobile phone users...

In the aftermath of January’s devastating earthquake, texting traffic in Haiti has greatly increased. Now one of the country’s leading wireless providers, Voilà, has announced that it will upgrade its Business Support System solution and text messaging capabilities so as to better accommodate this increased volume of traffic...

Columbus Communications Inc., a Curacao-based Cable MSO, has recruited Cerillion Technologies to support its operations across several countries, predominantly in the CALA region...

Colombia’s mobile broadband market took off last year but speeds are reportedly erratic and rarely reach 1Mb/s - even in the major cities. These are key conclusions from the brand-new Research and Markets report, Colombia - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts.

Uruguay is a regional leader in several key indicators, such as adult literacy, teledensity, and Internet penetration. It was able to weather the global financial crisis better than most other Latin American countries while the downturn had little impact on its telecom market. A new report from companies and markets - Uruguay - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts - reinforces this optimistic appraisal...

A new report from Companies and Markets supplies information on the El Salvador telecoms market, stressing the challenges and changes that the country faces. El Salvador - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband sets telecoms in the overall context of El Salvador before  commenting on recent developments...

Inside Contactless, a provider of open-standard contact-less chip technologies, has announced that its MicroPass 4003 contact-less intelligent payment processor is powering the MasterCard PayPass contact-less payment technology recently launched in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil...

Subex, which provides Operations and Business Support Systems (OSS/BSS) for CSPs (Communications Service Providers), is set to strengthen its presence in Latin America. It is to provide its ROC fraud management system under a contract with Telefónica Ingeniería de Seguridad (TIS), who are acting for Movistar Colombia...

Alvarion customer Feira De Santana Municipality has won the Prêmio Anuário TI & Governo award for Best Digital City Deployment in Brazil. Its Feira Digital project brings 300,000 people together wirelessly as well as providing public services to the municipality...

Telefónica, one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies, and MoreMagic Solutions, a mobile solutions provider, have announced that US friends and family of Telefónica customers are now able to recharge Movistar mobile phones throughout Latin America...

Critical Path, a provider of messaging applications, has revealed search results indicating that consumers in emerging markets are dissatisfied with their social networking experience...

ABI Research is predicting that a strong economic base is set to boost revenues from Latin American mobile business customers by 9% this year. Expected figure for the revenue in question is US$11.6 billion...

The Russian WiMAX operator Yota has been granted bandwidth spectrum use in Peru by the Latin American country’s Ministry of Transport and Communications, following the operator’s winning bid for the $3.9 million contract...