Argentine VoIP operator CrossFone plans to invest US$1.2mn to start manufacturing handsets designed for CDMA 450 networks, ADSL2+ modems and VoIP gateways in association with compatriot company Redcotel, local press reported.
These products will initially be marketed locally although both companies expect to export production in the long term. Redcotel is made up of members of the local telecoms cooperatives association Fecosur.
Provincial cooperative CoTeCal, serving El Calafate city in the southern Argentine province of Santa Cruz, deployed the country's first commercial CDMA450 network in October 2006. The network provides fixed line telephony, wireless telephony and internet access.
"This technology is used to substitute fixed line networks in remote areas where traditional infrastructure is not profitable. In Argentina the only place with this technology is El Calafate. Up to now there has not been a massive market for it in the country," Enrique Carrier, director of local consultancy Carrier y Asociados, told BNamericas.
CrossFone Argentina, a unit of regional VoIP long distance operator LatiNode, started operations in 2004 and mainly focuses on the retail segment offering prepaid phone cards, international long distance, IP telephony services to SMEs, virtual cards and local numbering.
CrossFone expects its revenues to quadruple to US$16mn in its current fiscal year, ending July 2007, from US$4mn in FY06, company CEO Roberto Castro previously told BNamericas."
Posted to the site on 1st June 2007
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/24097.php