ICT: The week in 10 stories

PERU

Peru's transport and communications ministry (MTC) has granted Hivsatel a national concession license to operate as a cable services provider for 20 years.

CURACAO

Liberty Latin America is exploring options to acquire the remaining 12.5% stake in Caribbean telco UTS that is controlled by the island nation of St Maarten, Ray Collins, Liberty Latin America's chief strategy officer, told BNamericas

COLOMBIA

President Iván Duque is aiming for national 5G coverage by 2024 and Latin American leadership in artificial intelligence, according to the ICT ministry (Mintic). To reach that goal, he urged congress to approve an ICT reform bill to reactivate flagging investment.

MEXICO

Regulator IFT modified two dates regarding a mandated split of América Móvil's Mexican fixed line wholesale units, which the company's union opposes. The dates are related to the transfer of assets and personnel to the new companies.

BOLIVIA

Trilogy International Partners saw a 7% decline in revenues in 2018 at its Bolivian operation NuevaTel, citing intense price competition.

BRAZIL

MercadoLibre will invest 3bn reais (US$777mn) in Brazil this year, which is 50% more than 2018 and three times more than 2017, the e-commerce powerhouse said.

CHILE

Telecoms regulator Subtel has proposed a new mechanism for setting spectrum caps, moving from a system that determines a fixed total amount per operator to a more flexible regime with a maximum amount per operator per band.

URUGUAY

Uruguayan state telco Antel launched a cloud product in partnership with local software firm eXpand to help companies reduce their costs through telephone marketing campaigns.

REGIONAL

US cloud security solutions company Netskope will open new datacenters in Latin America as part of an expansion plan expected to be announced by May, sales director Alain Karioty told BNamericas.

US VIRGIN ISLANDS

The US Virgin Islands need at least US$400mn to expand the fiber optics last-mile network so it can reach all businesses and inhabitants, the CEO of state-owned wholesale fiber optics provider Virgin Islands Next Generation Network (viNGN) was quoted as saying.