What are your strategic priorities in Latin America for 2015?
We will continue to invest heavily in both infrastructure, including deployment of LTE, HD voice support, VoLTE and HD video conferencing whilst leveraging the new PCCS submarine system, which links Florida to the islands of Tortola, Aruba and Curacao, as well as Cartagena in Colombia, Maria Chiquita and Balboa in Panama and Manta in Ecuador.
We intend to promote our robust security portfolio, with specific reference to internet security services (“DDoS Shield”, “Cyber Intelligence” and “Smart DNS”).
Brazil continues to be a key strategic country for us, which is reflected in our recent combined investment of over €7 billion through the acquisition of GVT.
The new Telefonica Brazil organisation resulting from this acquisition will enhance our position as the country’s leading integrated telecommunications operator, market leader in both the mobile and broadband segments, with national coverage and an increased exposure in the high value segment.
Simultaneously, we will leverage our local presence in all markets to ensure that we remain highly commercially competitive and retain our position as the partner of choice across Latin America.
What major trends do you see occurring in the Latin American market this year?
Competition looks set to intensify in 2015 and this will stimulate significant dynamism across the Latin American wholesale telecoms market.
Data usage will continue to grow unabated and the essence of this will challenge wholesalers to implement appropriate strategies to monetise this growth. Partnership will become increasingly important in order to deliver differentiated services whilst achieving deep and wide coverage.
Our customers’ requirements are evolving rapidly and we not only need to keep up with these changes but we need to anticipate them. We expect heightened concern with regard to security and increased cross-border trade will drive the adoption of new services including value-added roaming services, security services and M2M wholesale services.
Furthermore, retail demand will push the roll-out of HD voice support, VoLTE and HD video conferencing. Finally, we are keeping a close eye on the market when it comes to RCS and will be placing enhanced focus in this area within our IPX Suite.
What do you hope to achieve by attending Capacity Latam 2015?
We hope to engage deeply with our customers and partners across the region – to re-confirm existing long term relationships and build new ones.
Importantly, the event provides us with an opportunity to share ideas on the current trends with all attendees and enhance our insights into both the regional and global market.
What are some of the challenges of operating in the Latam market?
Latin America is a diverse region, representing a large number of countries with different economic cycles, GDP output, geographies and specific local ICT trends.
Our challenge is to ensure that we deeply understand these idiosyncrasies and adapt accordingly to the requirements of each country, whilst leveraging the benefits of our global and regional scale.
