Where América Móvil plans to spend US$8bn in 2018 capex

América Móvil is planning capital investments of around US$8bn this year, CEO Daniel Hajj said during a conference call with investors.

The company invested some 137bn pesos (US$7.4bn) in 2017.

Hajj said that the 2018 capex would cover network modernization, including new cell sites for coverage, capacity and indoor penetration.

The executive said the telco is looking to add 1,500-2,000 new cell sites in Brazil and around 800 in Mexico. Investments in fiber and photonics - an emerging technology aimed at boosting efficiency of IP data infrastructure - are also planned.

"[We] want best quality in our networks," Hajj said. "We're investing heavily in digital transformation as well as in cutting costs. In Brazil we're doing more quad play, broadband, fixed, TV and mobile.

"We've been doing that for maybe two years, which is helping us with churn," he said, adding that the company was not planning in investing more in satellite services.

América Móvil saw its net loss nearly double in 4Q17, hurt by the Mexican peso's depreciation against the dollar and euro.

The company posted a net loss of 11.3bn pesos (US$604mn) compared to 6bn pesos a year ago.

Quarterly revenue fell 2% to 264bn pesos but was up 0.5% in constant currency terms.

In Mexico, the company added 206,000 postpaid and 335,000 subscribers in 4Q. Revenues were 72bn pesos (US$3.9bn), flat compared to Q416; however, service revenues increased 3.3%, namely driven by mobile services.

América Móvil's Claro Brasil, which includes the operations of Claro, NET and Embratel, saw its revenues increase 1.1% year-over-year to 8.95bn reais (US$2.77bn) in the fourth quarter of 2017 driven, mostly, by a 10.7% jump in the mobile revenues, which hit 2.69bn reais.