América Móvil, AT&T sign MOU to expand relationship in Latin America
Puerto Rico Telephone/Claro’s parent company, América Móvil, and wireless provider AT&T announced Monday they have signed a strategic memorandum of understanding to explore ways of delivering enhanced communication services to multinational companies throughout Latin America and the rest of the world.
The late afternoon announcement was not country- or territory-specific, so it was not immediately clear if or how the agreement could affect the Puerto Rico market.
The memorandum of understanding calls for the two companies to develop means of: expanding and enhancing the coverage of their respective IP networks, to deliver the most sophisticated services and solutions to multinational companies in and from emerging markets; AT&T would be able to deepen its existing reach in Latin America using America Móvil networks in 15 countries throughout the region; America Móvil would benefit from being able to use AT&T’s global network infrastructure to provide global IP-based services to its customers in the United States and the rest of the world.
The two companies will collaborate on integrating the latest technologies into their networks, and will work, as well, on automating and simplifying processes for delivering and supporting network services and solutions.
“As part of AT&T’s commitment to deliver consistent and seamless global services for our enterprise customers, we continue to evolve our strategy to establish alliances in key regions in the world,” said said Roman Pacewicz, AT&T Business Solutions senior vice president of marketing and global strategy. “This involves the harmonization of infrastructure, services, systems and processes generating unprecedented value for our business customers.”
“This, in turn will enable multinational companies to compete better globally, knowing that their services and applications are being handled by our world-class IP network, capabilities and support,” he said.
“We are pleased with the proposed expansion of our long standing and trusted relationship with AT&T,” said Isidoro Ambe-Attar, chief executive of Telmex Corporate and Global Services, another América Móvil subsidiary.
“We have been working side by side for 20 years, sharing technology and operational expertise,” Ambe-Attar said. “Our proposed strategic agreement further reinforces our commitment to offer the best and broadest services to our customers.”
AT&T and América Móvil have had participation in each other’s boards of directors for many years, but have kept their affairs at “arm’s length” in the Puerto Rico market — where they are the top two wireless providers — as per conditions laid out by the Federal Communications Commissions.
