2008 3G CDMA Latin America Regional Conference

The CDMA Development Group (CDG) is pleased to announce the speaker line-up for the 2008 3G CDMA Latin America Regional Conference, which will be held 13-15 May at the Le Meridien Cancun Resort and Spa in Cancun, Mexico. The three-day event will bring together leading carriers, equipment vendors, content and service providers, government officials, media and analysts to discuss and learn about the benefits of CDMA2000(R) and CDMA450 technologies for the Latin American and Caribbean wireless market.

Keynote speakers include:

* Carlos Blanco, President, Centennial Puerto Rico * Gustavo Guzman, CEO, Iusacell (Mexico) * Jorge Partidas, CEO, LatCel * Eugenio Velasco, Director, Mobile Services, Televisa Digital * Marco Galvan, Vice President, Telmex

Additional speakers on the agenda are:

* Harjot Saluja, Director of EV-DO Products, Airvana * Victor Agnellini, President, Caribbean and Latin America Region, Alcatel-Lucent * Manuel Lopez, Technical Engineering Chief, ETAPA (Ecuador) * Jacqueline Majka, PoC & Mobile Broadband Solutions Marketing, Motorola * Danny Locklear, Global Wireless Product Marketing, Nortel * Omar Salvador, Senior Analyst, Pyramid Research * Rasmus Hellberg, Director, Technical Marketing, Qualcomm * Juan Gnius, Vice President, Signals Consulting * Victor Galvis, Senior Manager, Business Development, Sprint Nextel * Ernesto Piedras, Director General, The Competitive Intelligence Unit * Ruddy Valdivia, Director, Valtron (Peru)

In addition to the two-day conference on 14-15 May, the CDMA University will offer the training course, "EV-DO Concepts for Business Professionals," on the morning of Tuesday, 13 May, for a fee of U.S. $100 per person, and on the afternoon of 13 May, the CDG will present a workshop entitled "Evolution to Next-Generation Mobile Technology Solutions," which will be included with any conference registration.

Online registration is available at http://www.epic.com.mx/c/registration.html.

More information, including the latest agenda and hotel information, can be found at http://www.cdg.org/news/events/CDMASeminar/08_LatinAm/index.asp. Conference registration is FREE for qualified operators, regulators, media and analysts.

The Latin America Regional Conference is endorsed by Mexican operators Iusacell and Telmex. Senior sponsors are Airvana, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, Motorola, Nortel, QUALCOMM and ZTE. Supporting sponsors are AirWalk Communications, Nokia and TTI Telecom.

Sponsorship and speaking opportunities are available. For more information, please contact Ms. Ellen Kosson of the CDG at ekosson@cdg.org.

Mobile Market Analysis - Costa Rica

Costa Rica will generate more than US$ 5,895 in mobile telephone revenues during 2008 - 2013; Mobile lines growth to exhibit a 20% CAGR this period

The passage of the General Telecommunications Law (LGT) opens the door to new market players. Signals has identified America Movil, Digicel & Millicom as companies having an interest in playing a part in the Costa Rican mobile telephone market. ICE, the local incumbent operator, will have to improve its services offering and modify its marketing strategy in order to successfully face up to incoming competition.

Buenos Aires, May 6, 2008 - Signals Telecom Consulting, the leading Latin American and Caribbean telecommunications markets consulting and research firm is proud to announce the publication of the second edition of its "Mobile Market Analysis - Costa Rica". This report is part of Signal's "Mobile Telephony Services in Central America" series. In this study, Signals analyzes the Costa Rican mobile services market and the potential impact of the opening up of the local telecommunications sector.

At year-end 2007, Costa Rica surpassed the 1.76 million mark of mobile users. Delays caused by pending legal matters, however, had left the country with a high level of pent-up demand. Signals believes that although the LGT passage is the first step towards speeding up of ICE services contracting processes, the operator will need to focus its attention on diversifying its services offering, increasing tariffs segmentation and improving its public marketing efforts in order to face up to competition from newcomers.

"Although recent changes in the market indicate a positive advance for ICE, the company still has a long way to go because the lack of a commercial prepaid services offering together with low penetration levels of mobile services in the country make Costa Rica an attractive target for major Central American regional telecommunications operators. For example, although ICE already announced the rates for its upcoming prepaid service, their plan shows a low level of market segmentation when compared to prepaid services offered in other Central American countries," points out Elias Vicente, Signals Telecom Consulting consultant and main report author.

"It is important to highlight the fact that although this is a state-own company that does not mean it lacks the ability to successfully compete against incoming competitors. For example, Uruguay implemented a model in which the state-run telecom operator Antel / Ancel is run as if it were a private enterprise." adds Jose F. Otero, Signals Telecom Consulting President and co-author of the study.