WiMAX to Represent Around 5% of Broadband Connections in Latin America by 2013; Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico to Repre

The corporate and small and medium business segments will fuel WiMAX growth.   Total growth of WiMAX broadband connections will reflect a CAGR or 45% during the 2008-2013 period.

Buenos Aires, Argentina - September 17, 2008 - Signals Telecom Consulting, the leading Latin American and Caribbean telecommunication markets consulting and research firm, is proud to announce the publication of a series of studies on WiMAX.  This research set is composed of two reports: "An Analysis of the WiMAX Business Model in Latin America: Opportunities and Challenges" and "An Analysis of the WiMAX Business Model in Latin America: Operator Profiles".  These studies provide statistical projections for the next coming five year period that includes total revenues as well as the total number of WiMAX connections (among other items) for the seven largest Latin American markets: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.

"A large portion of the spectrum licenses that have been awarded in the region are not currently being used either for speculative reasons or because experiences with WLL technologies have been disappointing.  The majority of commercial WiMAX operations are focused on the 3.5 GHz band and, to a lesser degree, on the 2.5 GHz band," comments Carlos Blanco, Markets Research Director for Signals Telecom Consulting and report author.

These reports highlight the fact that in spite of the tremendous speed potential claimed by WiMAX, 57% of corresponding offerings fall below the 1 Mbps mark in Latin America.  As of 3Q08, the maximum speed offered is 4 Mbps (Embratel - Brazil).  "The high cost of handsets together with the high number of antennas needed to provide effective coverage in urban areas makes WiMAX a niche technology that can only be successful if operators complement their wireless broadband services offerings with value added services, wireless backhaul, voice and eventually video.  As such, the launch of WiMAX services focused on the mass market that do not include any type of additional service packaging have extremely limited growth possibilities in Latin America.  This has been clearly demonstrated via the Orbitel experience with this technology in Colombia," concludes José F. Otero, President of Signals Telecom Consulting.   

Additional Information

 The radio-electric spectrum band analyzed for each one of the seven marketplaces included in this research series includes:

             450 MHz, 700 MHz, 1.910 MHz, 1.710 MHz - 2.100 MHz, 2,3 GHz, 2,4 GHz, 2,5 GHz, 3,3 GHz, 3,5 GHz y 5,8 GHz.

As a whole, these two reports offer an analysis of a total of 61 operators.  As of 3Q08, 26 of these have commercial wireless  fixed services offerings that use either WiMAX or some other technology.

As of 3Q08, there are a total of 35 operators that either offer wireless broadband services via a variety of WiMAX technologies  or have expressed their intention to migrate their networks over to 802.16 technologies in the middle term.

About Signals Telecom Consulting

 Signals Telecom Consulting, with offices in Buenos Aires Argentina and an on-site presence in Fort Lauderdale, Florida is the leading Latin American and Caribbean Telecommunication Markets Consulting and Research firm.  Signals offers dedicated consulting and research services that aide operators, manufacturers, applications developers and investments banks during the strategic decision making process.

Contact:

e-mail: info@signalstelecom.com

  Tel: (54) (11) 5246-6691