Weekly Report - 7 February 2013 (WR-13-05)

VENEZUELA | Telefónica investment. On 5 February Spanish telecoms giant, Telefónica, announced that it plans to invest US$790m in Venezuela this year as it prepares to launch its fourth generation (4G) mobile phone service in the country in a bid to consolidate itself as the main provider. The announcement was made by Telefónica Venezuela president, Pedro Cortez, who said that Telefónica’s mobile phone service branch, Movistar, had become the leading provider of services oriented to smartphones in the country. According to Cortez, Venezuela has “one of the largest if not the largest penetration of smartphones in the Americas”, pointing out that two out of every 10 mobile phones in the country are smartphones. He added that last year 1m Venezuelans acquired a smartphone with Movistar, a 30% increase from the previous year, which means that currently 55% of smartphones or 3.2m customers are contracted to Movistar.

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