Company type | Sociedad Anónima |
---|---|
BCBA: TECO2 NYSE: TEO MERVAL component | |
Industry | Telecommunications |
Predecessor | ENTel |
Founded | 1990 |
Headquarters | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
Key people | Roberto Nobile (CEO) Mariano Ibáñez (President) |
Products | Telecommunications services |
Brands | |
Revenue | ARS 237.000.000.000 (2019) |
Owner | Clarín Group (33%) Fintech (41,2%) [note 1] |
Number of employees | 23,415 (1H 2020) |
Website | telecom.com.ar |
Telecom Argentina S.A. is the major local telephone company for the northern part of Argentina, including the whole of the city of Buenos Aires. Briefly known as Sociedad Licenciataria Norte S.A., it quickly changed its name, and is usually known as simply "Telecom" within Argentina.
Together with Telefónica de Argentina in the southern part of the country, was part of the national fixed telephone market duopoly, until 8 October 1999. Telecom also operates the mobile phone service Personal, the cable modem service Arnet-Fibertel and the cable operator Cablevisión, now under the brand "Flow".
In 1990, Argentina started to privatize most of its state-owned utilities: power, water, trains, and telecommunications, just to name a few. The monopoly of state-owned phone service ENTel was split into two territories: Stet International (the previous name of Telecom Italia and France Télécom was given the "upper half" of the country, from the middle to the north, [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] and Telefónica was given the southern part). Each company was given an initial 7 year monopoly beginning on November 8, 1990. Initially, other companies were given exclusive licenses for international long distance, as well as cellular phone service. Telecom Italia and France Télécom later sold its part of the company to the Argentine Werthein Group.
Its Puerto Madero headquarters were designed by the American architectural studio of Kohn Pedersen Fox, and inaugurated on February 18, 1998. [7]
Both local phone companies turned their systems into profitable operations in just a few years, despite the terrible conditions they inherited from ENTel. In the worst years of ENTel, a line activation would take several years. The telephone wiring layout across the country was undocumented. At privatization in 1990, the wait was still 4 years to get new service and 40 days for repair. [8]
Starting off Telecom Argentina invested into the country and during the first 8 years of strong investment in infrastructure deployment at a rate a little less than a billion u$s per year, with a complete restructuring of the copper access network and the deployment of one of the most advanced and large deployment of SDH long-distance fiber network at those times 2.5 Gbit/s networks, and the upgrade of almost all central offices, most of them electromechanical and also some manual small exchanges. Some years later, all of the phone network was upgraded to a state-of-the-art system, from central telephone exchanges up to the wires going into homes; by 2005, 98% of the ENTel network infrastructure had been replaced.
In 2005, the Bank of New York was appointed as trustee, registrar and paying and transfer agent for Telecom Argentina's $1.5 billion debt restructuring, the biggest Argentine debt restructuring to date. The restructure involved the exchange of $2.8 billion in outstanding debt for newly issued exchange notes and cash, and involved consent requests and instructions for over 1100 creditors. [9]
In 2017, Telecom merged with Clarín Group's Cablevisión so the new company became the largest mass media enterprise of Argentina. [1] The merger was approved by the Government of Argentina in June 2018. After that operation, the group entered into the internet access and mobile telephony business. [10]
"Telecom Personal", owned by Telecom Argentina, is one of only 3 mobile phone companies in Argentina. Personal used a similar logo to Telecom itself until November 2011, when they switched into a new handwritten logo combined with nine brand colors. [11] [12]
Telecom Personal owns 67.5% of Paraguayan mobile provider Núcleo S.A., which started in 1998 and also does business under the brand name Personal. [13]
Telecom Argentina has agreed with Uruguayan state telcom ANTEL to operate as a reseller of Antel services in that country. Mexican mobile phone Claro has asked the national telecommunications regulating entity not to allow Personal to arrive to Uruguay. [14]
As of 2019, current approximate ownership of Telecom Argentina is: [15]
Critics of Telecom argue that, when it received government subsidies to provide service in remote areas, it either didn't provide the service, or just installed public telephones. Critics also point to the high prices charged by the company, and to the fact that, unlike much of the world, Argentine customers have to pay per minute, rather than a fixed price.
In contrast, defendants of the system point out that the 011 area code (called AMBA, most of Gran Buenos Aires) provides local phone access to five to six million users (15-16% of the total population of the country), making a flat-rate type of service economically impossible.
Due to the lack of long requested flat telephone rates for local calls, especially to connect to Internet, a lot of users installed ADSL services from Arnet, Telecom's Internet service provider. The company was heavily criticised when it decided to limit ADSL users to 4 GB per month and charge for extra traffic, a decision which was promptly reversed.
Other critics to the company are centred on the lack of information on their offers, and obscure contracts with prices not including taxes, and other important information.
Brazil has both modern technologies in the center-south portion, counting with LTE, 3G HSPA, DSL ISDB based Digital TV. Other areas of the country, particularly the North and Northeast regions, lack even basic analog PSTN telephone lines. This is a problem that the government is trying to solve by linking the liberation of new technologies such as WiMax and FTTH) only tied with compromises on extension of the service to less populated regions.
Telecommunications in Peru include radio and television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
Telefónica, S.A. is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company with registered office and headquarters located in two different places, both in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadband, and subscription television, operating in Europe and the Americas.
Communications in Argentina gives an overview of the postal, telephone, Internet, radio, television, and newspaper services available in Argentina.
Teléfonos de México, S.A.B. de C.V., known as Telmex is a Mexican telecommunications company headquartered in Mexico City that provides telecommunications products and services in Mexico. In 2014, Telmex was the dominant fixed-line phone carrier in Mexico. In addition to traditional fixed-line telephone service, Telmex offers Internet access through their Infinitum brand of Wi-Fi networks, data, hosted services and IT services. Telmex owns 90 percent of the telephone lines in Mexico City and 80 percent of the lines in the country. Telmex is a wholly owned subsidiary of América Móvil.
TIM S.p.A. is an Italian telecommunications company with headquarters in Rome, Milan, and Naples, which provides fixed telephony and DSL data services.
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The Claro Company, or simply Claro, is a Latin American telecommunications company, part of América Móvil, a Mexican telecom group. Claro serves customers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico and Uruguay. Its Mexican operations are branded as Claro Mexico. The company's name means "bright," "clear," and also "of course," in both Portuguese and Spanish.
América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. is a Mexican telecommunications corporation headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico. It is the 7th largest mobile network operator in the world in terms of equity subscribers, as well as one of the largest corporations in the world. América Móvil is a Forbes Global 2000 company. As of 31 December 2023, América Móvil had 310.1 million wireless subscribers, and 73.7 million fixed revenue generating units.
Millicom International Cellular SA is a Luxembourgish fixed line and mobile telecommunications services provider operating in Latin America operating under the Tigo brand. Its main shareholder is Xavier Niel, a French billionaire who owns 40% of the company.
Wind Hellas was a Greek integrated telecommunications provider with headquarters in Athens, Greece.
Personal is an Argentine telecommunications company which provides Internet and mobile telephony services throughout the country. A subsidiary of Telecom, it started as a mobile service provider from its foundation in 1995 until 2021 when it absorbed Telecom's Fibertel and Cablevisión subsidiaries, combining both broadband and mobile internet services under one brand. Personal is Argentina's second-largest mobile phone service provider, after Telefonica's Movistar.
Telephone numbers in Uruguay use the calling code +598. In 2010, national long distance calling was eliminated, and area codes were dropped.
The Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones was an Argentine state-owned enterprise which had the monopoly on public telecommunications in the country.
The mass media in Argentina is one of the leading media markets in South America, with a relatively free and fair press and media industry. While there are 15 major media companies in Argentina, most media outlets are owned by a very small number of large conglomerates such as Grupo Clarín and Grupo América.
Entel S.A. is a major Bolivian state-owned telecommunications company, headquartered in La Paz, Bolivia.
Fibertel was an Argentine Internet service provider. It worked as a stand-alone organization until 2003, when it was merged with Cablevisión, a cable television provider. Cablevisión was part of the Grupo Clarín, thus Fibertel became part of it. Fibertel has over a million clients, and it is the third ISP of the country. In 2018, Cablevisión, including Fibertel, merged with Telecom Argentina.
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)Somos el servicio de telefonía móvil Personal ofrecido en Paraguay por la empresa Núcleo S.A. operativa desde el 24 de junio de 1.998. ... Nuestra empresa, Núcleo S.A., está conformada en 32.5% por ABC Comunicaciones (grupo paraguayo) y en 67.5% por Telecom Personal