Digicel Group increases first half profit by 10 per cent

From Caribbean360:

KINGSTON, Jamaica, November 19, 2009 - Mobile operator Digicel has reported a 10 per cent increase in its half year profit to US$364 million from operations in its 24 markets in the Caribbean and El Salvador. The company said it has grown its subscriber base by seven per cent in the past year to 7.3 million, and in its most recent quarter ending September 30th, added 98,000 subscribers.

Transfer of Vitelco, Innovate Cable Could Impact V.I. Ratepayers

From the St. Thomas Source:

What charges might go on the balance sheets of local utilities was a major concern of V.I. Public Services Commission (PSC) consultants as formal testimony in transfer-of-control hearings for Vitelco phone and Innovative Cable TV companies wound up Wednesday evening.

The phone and cable companies, which are regulated by the PSC, are solvent. But their parent companies, which can be collectively called Innovative Communications or ICC, have been in bankruptcy since July 2006. National Rural Telephone Finance Corporation is the biggest creditor, and its financial arm, National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC), is seeking PSC approval to assume ownership of the regulated utilities.

Signals Announces The Launch Of Its New Forecasts For Triple Play In Latin America Service

Revenue-Generating Units Will Exceed 200 Million Accesses By 2014

Buenos Aires - November 2, 2009 - Signals Telecom Consulting, the leading telecommunications research and consulting firm for markets in Latin America and the Caribbean, announces the availability of its new service: Forecasts for Triple Play in Latin America. This service monitors growth in the number of Pay TV subscribers, broadband accesses and landlines in the seven largest telecommunications markets in Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.

Forecasts for Triple Play in Latin America is a quarterly service that includes the monitoring of 30 operators that in total will account for over 200 million revenue-generating units (RGU) by 2014.

Information included in the services indicates that:

- Mexico will displace Chile as the market with the highest per-household broadband penetration in 2010.

- Peru will have the lowest per-household broadband penetration in 2014.

- Over 50% of households in Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela will have Pay TV accesses by 2014.

- Brazil will account for one third of all Pay TV accesses by 2014.

- High Pay TV penetration levels will not be replicated by broadband accesses in Argentina.

- DTH will become the largest Pay TV platform in Mexico by 2013.

- HFC networks will remain as the principal Pay TV platforms during the next five years in Argentina, Brazil and Peru.

- Migration by CATV users to IPTV platforms will transform Colombia into the market with the highest IPTV penetration per household in the region.

- Economic difficulties and delayed investments make it highly unlikely that Venezuela will be able to meet its IPTV targets.

This new service complements a series providing the most comprehensive analysis of Pay TV in Latin America, which consists of four volumes: "The DTH market as a bundling strategy in Latin America," "The CATV business model in Latin America: Operator Profiles," "IPTV Strategies in Latin America" and "Comparative Analysis of Double/Triple Play in Latin America."