Partnership paves the way for borderless mobile and IoT experiences, enabling MVNOs across South America, Central America and the Caribbean to introduce new digital services quickly to enterprises and consumers without large upfront investments

Dubai, UAE – February 26, 2019 – Antel, a state-owned company and telecommunications market leader in Uruguay, and Tata Communications, a leading global digital infrastructure provider, have joined forces to serve mobile and IoT providers in South America, Central America and the Caribbean. It will act as the foundation for next-generation mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) services in sectors such as retail, utilities, construction, IT and banking.  

Antel and Tata Communications will offer cloud-based mobile and IoT services using a business model that minimises total cost of ownership and time-to-market through a unique commercial risk sharing approach. The new mobility partnership combines Antel’s world-class data centre and Latin American market knowledge with the Tata Communications MOVE™ platform global network reach to enable businesses to quickly deploy new mobile and IoT services across the region.  

Through the use of the Tata Communications MOVE™ platform, Antel’s MVNO partners can bring their own mobile network access agreements across Central and South America as well as the Caribbean, or work with Antel as the enabler for mobile wholesale access. As a result, mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) of all sizes and market segmentations are able to launch new mobile and IoT services without making large up-front investments in their own mobile infrastructure, network service management or go-to-market operations.

The South American IoT market is projected to reach USD 19.4 billion by 2023.  This growth is fuelled by increasingly pervasive Internet connectivity in the region, which is accelerating the use of triple-play services and smartphones amongst people and businesses. Furthermore, in some countries, there are government efforts to make it easier and more cost-effective for MVNO start-ups to get off the ground, to expedite IoT deployments, and to developing digital networks and smart cities. 

“As the fastest-growing smartphone market in the world, Latin America is seeing great impulse for Internet and smartphones,” said Eng. Jorge Suarez, Deputy CEO, Antel. “With our brand new multi awarded Tier III data centre, boosted with the complement of the Monet/Tannat submarine fibre optic cable system, Antel has built the perfect environment to offer carrier cloud services to become the best partner in the region of choice for businesses and local tech providers that want to introduce new solutions, engage with their customers in new ways, or boost operational efficiencies through next-generation digital applications to improve their competitiveness. Working with Tata Communications enables us to address new local partners for mobile and IoT services, while generating new revenue streams, as mobile growth in this region gains momentum.”

The cloud-based, fully automated and API-enabled Tata Communications MOVE™ platform simplifies and accelerates the roll-out of new mobile and IoT services for Antel’s partners. This is because it is tightly integrated with their business processes, eliminating the complexity associated with the management of operations, including service activation, billing, promotions and value-added services.

“From banking to consumer triple-play and connected car services, mobility and IoT are breaking down barriers to business growth on a regional and global scale,” said Anthony Bartolo, Chief Product Officer, Tata Communications. “Yet, all too often businesses’ digital transformation ambitions are being constrained by the inherently local nature of mobile networking, marred by complex roaming agreements and patchy, unreliable connectivity in different countries. With our Tata Communications MOVE™ platform and our partnership with Antel, we look forward to unlocking mobility and IoT innovation in South America, Central America and the Caribbean and enabling the region’s businesses to open up new revenue streams as MVNOs.   

Tata Communications MOVE™ is part of the company’s aim of creating global, borderless mobile experiences for people and things. It is underpinned by Tata Communications’ partnerships in the world’s mobile ecosystem and its global network, which today connects 4 out of 5 mobile subscribers and carries around 30% of the world’s Internet routes.

Tata Communications will be at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 25th -28th 2019. Come see us in our hospitality suite (Hall 2, Stand H30).