Regional Players Map 2016

Regional Players Map 2016 - Credit: © 2016 Convergencialatina

Latin America 2016 political scenario lives in 2016 a reconfiguration time. On the one hand, the end of a cycle of progressive governments in Argentina and Brazil, along with the loss of Venezuelan influence is recorded, while recovery of US involvement in the region is reasserted. The rearrangement of the political puzzle in turn, goes through the resetting of the ICT sector itself on its pathway towards full convergence.

Prevailing agents America Móvil and Telefónica watch out for the possible expansion of AT&T, which appears as the spearhead of US investment in the Latin American market, and of other companies like Turner, which strongly lands in Argentina.

At the same time, incumbents develop service virtualization and digitalization strategies, raise new responses given OTT irreversible presence and face competition from players such as Google or Facebook who turn towards network deployment.

The game is different for each player. América Móvil assesses its growth potential resulting from Oi collapse in Brazil and waits for the new convergent regulation to become effective in Argentina in order to expand its presence in multiple play through the purchase of local operators.

Telefónica, beset by its debts and by the course of its business in Europe, will lose its leadership in the Argentine market with the merger of Grupo Clarín and Telecom, and sees its position in Mexico threatened by AT&T. Speculations about the Spanish company range from the purchase of DirecTV -a business AT&T could divest to focus on fiber optic and that would allow Telefónica to boost its offer where it has no video- to the eventual exit of some of the most important markets in the region.

The other relevant factor is the purchase of Cable & Wireless (C&W) by Liberty Global. The US company became an important player in the Caribbean, both in fixed and mobile services. But the point that calls for consideration is Liberty clear intention to provide services to end customers in some Latin American markets where C&W only came as a wholesaler. Such is the case of Colombia, where, despite its setbacks, the peace process portends possibilities for investments in 2017, including privatization of several state operators.