Iusacell to invest USD 400 mln in GSM network development

Mexican mobile operator Iusacell plans to invest around USD 400 million this year to build a GSM network, alongside its existing CDMA network, local paper Excelsior reports, citing company officials. The deployment of a parallel network based on a different platform is expected to enable Iusacell to enhance its presence on the prepaid mobile market segment. Over 90 percent of Mexico’s mobile customer base are prepaid users, and nearly 92 percent of the overall mobile base uses GSM services. Another player on the local mobile market, Nextel Mexico, is also considering adopting new platforms such as GSM or CDMA. According to Gustavo Cantu, vice president of new business development at Nextel, the adoption of new platforms will largely depend on new blocks of radio spectrum coming available. Iusacell had around 4.71 million customers or 5 percent of the local mobile market at the end of the third quarter of 2008, being the only company in Mexico which operates a CDMA platform. Nextel, which leverages iDen technology, saw around 2.58 million in the same period, covering 3 percent of the market. Using GSM networks, Telcel and Telefonica served 54.38 million and 14.66 million subscribers at end-September 2008, according to data provided by the companies.

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Source: http://www.telecompaper.com