MEXICO CITY -(Dow Jones)- The Mexican unit of Latin America's No. 1 mobile operator, America Movil, plans to offer the iPhone 3G to the country's massive prepaid consumer market in the short term, according to a top executive.
Telcel dominates Mexico's wireless industry with 51.5 million subscribers and a 73% market share at the end of the first quarter.
Starting Friday, Telcel will sell two versions of Apple's iPhone 3G under three postpaid plans costing between 459 pesos ($45) and MXN799 a month. Telcel will charge between MXN889 and MXN4,689 for each phone depending on the plan.
"In coming days we will be offering the product to the prepaid market," said Patricia Hevia, an operations director at Telcel, during a press conference Wednesday.
About 93% of Telcel's clients were prepaid users who are mainly lower income consumers that buy subsidized phones and charge them with airtime through calling cards. The other 7% were postpaid users, typically wealthier individuals or businesses, with calling plans.
Market observers see Telcel's iPhone launch as a gambit to retain clients and woo customers from rival carriers following the implementation of number-portability rules last week, which allow consumers to keep their phone number when they switch service providers.
America Movil, which has more than 159 million wireless clients in 16 countries across the Americas, will be one of the first mobile operators to sell the iPhone in Latin America.
The company said in June that it plans to sell iPhone 3G in other Latin American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, as well as companies from Central America, later this year.
Hevia reaffirmed Telcel's aim to have third-generation, or 3G, networks operating in 350 cities by the end of the year, up from 15 cities when it first launched the service in February.
Third-generation technology allows users to access advanced wireless services such as broadband and streaming video.
America Movil launched 3G services during the first quarter in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, bringing to 14 the number of countries where it operates 3G networks based on UMTS/HSDPA technology.
Spending on 3G networks was one of main factors that led the company to report first-quarter earnings that were well below market consensus.
America Movil's L shares on the Mexican Stock Exchange were down 2.4% to MXN26.07 in early afternoon trading.
-By Ken Parks, Dow Jones Newswires; 52-55-5001-5723; ken.parks@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Posted to the site on 9th July 2008
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/32304.php