A new report from Companies and Markets provides a detailed analysis of the Central American telecoms market, listing great successes as well as markets which the authors considered to be under-achievers...

ITU has signed an important Cooperation Agreement with Singapore-based smartBridges Solutions, a leading provider of wireless broadband equipment, to provide WiMAX and WiFi systems to strengthen ITU’s on-the-ground disaster response capabilities...

GyPSii has been selected by Genasys as its exclusive mobile social network partner. In partnership with Telefonica, they will launch a consumer-focused application to subscribers across Latin America...

Siano Mobile Silicon, a supplier of mobile digital TV receiver chips, is set to bring Mobile Digital TV to mass-market levels in Brazil and China...

NII Holdings, Inc. has selected Nokia Siemens Networks to manage its network operations throughout Latin America...

 In what is believed to be the world's first m-giving campaign powered by 2-d barcode technology, delegates at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona are able to donate money to Haitian relief efforts by simply snapping a barcode with their mobile phones...

Designed to drive growth and boost revenues in Bolivia and Honduras, Comverse’s Voice HUB will be deployed via Millicom brand TIGO. Other benefits will be visual voicemail and call completion...

Maravedis has released its Brazil wireless broadband and WiMAX market analysis for 2010. Initial enthusiasm and success for WiMAX have cooled somewhat but 3G and cell have great futures. What follows is the Maravedis report’s executive summary...

Clickatell has extended its free SMS services to organisations providing aid to Haiti. The versatility of SMS has made it the communication channel of choice in the aftermath of the recent earthquake, and Clickatell’s move is sure to be welcomed not just by aid workers and residents in Haiti, but by those donating to the numerous charities providing aid to the country...

Brazil has long been a high performer in the world of emerging telecoms markets - in overall economic terms, she is a member of the CIRB group. And yet there are still challenges she needs to meet to become a mature telecoms power. Michael Schwartz analyses...

Brightstar will now be managing online sales for Brazil’s Oi. Initially, globally familiar handsets such as those from Nokia, Samsung, LG, and Motorola will be available, along with well-known smartphone manufacturers like Blackberry, HTC, and Apple...

Colombia’s Ministry of Communications has extended the contract which it signed with Gilat Satellite Networks by one year. Gilat will also transfer 300 telecentres to parts of Colombia without other means of communication...

While the final death toll from the earthquake on Haiti has yet to be established, it is clear that many of the world’s leading organisations, public and private, have supplied emergency equipment and food and drink on a massive scale. This article by Michael Schwartz looks at the early help given by the telecoms sector...

Latin America’s largest mobile phone network Claro is set to augment its operations in Honduras by implementing Open Systems’ SmartFlex solution, following a decision from its operator, América Móvil. The move follows a successful deployment of the solution by Claro’s Enitel operation in Nicaragua...

Nicaragua is set to benefit from a new WiMAX broadband network which will be deployed by Yota, a Russian internet access services provider...

The Mobile Entertainment Forum has expanded into Latin America with a launch in Brazil, a market forecast to achieve tremendous success in the infotainment sector. So far, 26 founding members of the MEF’s Latin American branch have been declared...

Ecuador’s Corporación Nacional de Telecomunicaciones has selected Open Systems’ Open.flexIS solution to consolidate its back office. The project will take place over the course of 180 days...

Research released by Frost & Sullivan and Colibria shows that mobile social networking is set to increase ten-fold in South America and Africa to a combined total of 527 million users in a market worth almost US$2.4 billion...

The first 4G wireless broadband network in Trinidad and Tobago has been deployed by the majority state-owned operator Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT). The company was issued a temporary licence for the deployment of its fourth generation network in April...

Twenty-three cities across Mexico are set to benefit from high-speed wireless internet services, thanks to a US$700 million investment from MVS Comunicaciones SA, Clearwire and Intel...

Wire-line infrastructure will be a better-understood product in Colombia as a result of the recently announced partnership between China’s ZTE and Colombia’s Javeriana University. Technologies such as NGN, transmission and net access are leading candidates for study...

More than 3,500 rural sites on Peru will enjoy the benefits of broadband satellite communications thanks to a contract signed between Gilat and Telefonica del Peru. The contract is part of Telefonica Latinoamerica's initiative to deploy broadband services across the region...

Starhome, a provider of roaming services for mobile network operators, has announced that TelCell St. Maarten, the mobile services division of the St. Maarten Group of Telephone Companies, has increased its customers’ roaming minutes by more than 47,000 per month since implementing Starhome solutions several months ago...

 BuddeComm’s annual report "Caribbean – telecoms, mobile and broadband" predicts that the major mobile operator in the region, Digicel, will continue to be dominant in the region but that LIME (Cable & Wireless rebranded) will step up its commercial presence...

Cisco's Broadband Barometer (22nd edition) shows that fixed broadband connections grew 10.4 % in the first semester of 2009, in comparison with the same period last year...

Residents and businesses on St Lucia can sign up for a new fixed-line service from Karib Cable. The company has been active on St Lucia for around eighteen months and has broken a monopoly previously held by Cable and Wireless...

Trading conditions relating to fixed-line services provided by Bahamas Telecommunications Company make for very depressing reading: a drop of 80% over the four years to the end of 2008. Only increased rental charges have have reduced the losses sustained...

With a fixed-line penetration rate of 21%, Chile can now boast the highest such rate in Latin America. The newest report from Companies and Markets covers a variable market where fixed-line is successful but broadband has to date been disappointing in terms of growth...

 London-based firm Companies and Markets have released a new report entitled 'Cuba - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband' which profiles the fixed-line, mobile and broadband markets in Cuba. The report notes that Cuba has the lowest mobile penetration rate in Latin America and that government-controlled Etecsa and its subsidiary Cubacel monopolise fixed-line and mobile respectively...

Issue 45 of Submarine Telecoms Forum contains an article by Dr Andrés J Fígoli Pacheco, a Senior Legal Counsel with Telefónica International Wholesale Services (TIWS) in Montevideo, Uruguay. He has been engaged in improving the legal framework protecting submarine cables in Latin America...

Analyst and forecaster Companies and Markets has recently turned its attention to the less-publicised markets in the Caribbean. Its profile of Haiti’s fixed line system can hardly be described as optimistic...