Current state of Communications in Mexico

Mexico is a fast developing nation. Mexico’s communication network is one of the most advanced and extensive in Latin America. Though, landlines will never reach the penetration levels like in USA or Europe, mobile telephony has flourished in Mexico and is now very popular means of communication.

Mexico has a whole range of telephone services – reliable landline telephone services, GSM, 3G mobile technology and high-speed internet (ADSL) services.

One of the mobile heavyweights in Mexico is Telmex which has almost a vice like grip. This monopoly means that telephone charges are higher by U.S. standards. Telmex’s clout has ensured that no other significant companies have been able to make any sort of dent in the market.

In recent years, with advent of newer technologies like VoIP, people have started using Skype and similar services to bring down long distance costs.

To the credit of Telmex, their network is quite extensive. Most of the country is covered and you will not face difficulty in communication. Telmex has brought new technologies, like high-speed internet etc.

This is a guest post by MexicoSummer.com – a comprehensive resource for Mexico real estate and Mexico Hotels

Toshiba has launched Canivo backup drives for Mac, which may emerge as a substitute for Apple’s troubled Time Capsule backup device which is facing data-loss problems, if the device shuts down unexpectedly.

Toshiba introduced on Tuesday Canivo portable hard drive to support Mac operating systems with capacities of 500GB, 750GB and ITB priced at $99.99, $119.99 and $139.99 respectively.

It enables consumers store largest digital libraries on their hard drives. The 500GB can store up to 142,000 digital photos, or 131,000 digital music files, or 410 downloaded digital movies while 750GB is capable of storing up to 214,000 digital photos, or 197,000 digital music files, or 610 downloaded digital movies. But the largest of them all 1TB supports up to 285,000 digital photos, or 263,000 digital music files, or 820 downloaded digital movies.

The Canvio drives are preloaded with NTI Shadow 5 for Mac software giving the users the ease to backup and synchronize the data in hard drives. One can secure the backup files with password protected data encryption up to 256-bit in order to prevent data theft. Also, Canvio hard drives have internal shock sensor and ramp loading technology to help protect users drive and data. One key feature is that the hard drive keeps a copy of everything saved on the user’s computer.

The timing is likely to help Toshiba push its product as Apple is facing major issues over defects in its Time Capsule.

O2 is to cancel unlimited data from its Smartphone tariffs, introducing 500MB, 750MB and 1GB data monthly allowances from June 24, the same day iPhone 4 launches. Similarly, Orange has decided to follow O2 and cut unlimited data tariffs from its customer propositions this summer as UK operators seek to manage finite bandwidth and improve customer experience.

O2 will scrap unlimited data for new and upgrading mobile customers from June 24 – the date iPhone 4 goes on sale in the UK.

Three inclusive data bundles will be introduced for new and upgrading Smartphone customers. Customers paying £25, £30 and £35 a month will receive 500MB of data and 100, 300 and 600 minutes respectively, those paying £40 and £45 a month will receive 750MB of data as well as 900 and 1,200 minutes respectively and it will cost £60 a month to receive 1GB of data, also offering unlimited minutes. All tariffs come with unlimited texts and Wi-Fi.

Orange is to pull unlimited data tariffs from its portfolio in the next months, for all new and upgrading customers. Data caps will be imposed on customers to better manage data traffic across its network, and to prevent the kinds of bottlenecks that have aroused from the surge in Smartphone sales.

Apple is set to face some stiff competition as Taiwanese PC makers get their iPad challengers ready. Companies such as Asus and MSI are showcasing Android- and Windows-based tablets that they say will be better & cheaper than the iPad.

At the Computex trade show in Taipei, Taiwan, Asus announced its first tablet, called the Eee Pad.4

The Eee Pad has a 12-inch touchscreen display and is a “full-featured slate computer that serves as a multimedia player, e-reader, compact PC and internet device,” says the company. The Eee Pad has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and Windows 7 operating system. The company offers a 10-inch display version of the Eee Pad.

Asus rival MSI is fielding two tablets: One features the Windows 7 operating system and the other is powered by Google’s Android OS. The tablets, called Wind-Pad, have 10-inch screens, 2 GB of RAM and a 1.6-GHz Atom processor. The tablets will offer 3G and Wi-Fi capability. Both tablets are expected to be available in the third quarter of 2010.

“We understand that people are only willing to pay less than $500 for a tablet,” Andy Tung, vice-president of sales for MSI told Wired.com. “And because the OS is one of the biggest costs in the device, our Android tablet will be at least 20 percent cheaper than the Windows version.”

After 34 days, India’s 3G spectrum auctions ended with total bids reaching almost $15 billion, almost double the government expectations.
 
The government will reap 677.1 billion rupees ($14.7 billion) from the 2100MHz auction alone, against 350 billion rupees it forecasted from both the country’s 3G and Broadband Wireless Access spectrum auctions
 
The biggest spender was India’s largest mobile company Bharti Airtel which bought spectrum in 13 circles including Mumbai and Delhi, for 122.95 billion rupees.
 
Vodafone was second, winning spectrum in nine circles for 116.18 billion rupees, followed by Reliance Communications which successfully bid 85.85 billion rupees for 13 regions.
 
Aircel will pay about 65 billion rupees for spectrum in 13 second-and third-tier circles, while Idea Cellular won spectrum in 11 service areas for 57.69 billion.
 
Leading operators backed off on plans to bid for spectrum in all 22 circles, as aggressive bidding pushed the price tag for pan-Indian spectrum to $3.6 billion.
 
Analysts had forecast a pan-Indian footprint would cost in the region of $1.3 billion.
 
“The auction format and severe spectrum shortage along with ensuing policy uncertainty drove the prices beyond reasonable levels,” said Bharti.
 
“As a result, we could not achieve our objective of a pan-India 3G footprint in this round.”
 
“The fact that most of the companies have not gone and done blanket bidding [for all circles]…clearly shows that each operator has invested in circles where they…have a strong presence,” Manesh Patel, partner with Ernst & Young told Business Standard.
 
“This will enable the companies to monetise the spectrum in the long run.”