GENERAL LATIN AMERICA
IT - ECONOMIC RELATED
11/3/99
U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY TO AMERICAS SEES FTAA PASSAGE BY 2005
Toronto, Canada, Nov. 2 - The Free Trade Area of the
Americas (FTAA) stands a good chance of going into effect by the target
date of 2005, says White House Special Envoy to the Americas Kenneth "Buddy"
MacKay.
Interviewed November 2 at the Americas Business Forum being held in Toronto November 1-3, MacKay said that on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being absolute certainty, the chances of the FTAA being enacted on time stand at 7 or 8.
Even Brazil, which has voiced reservations about the pace of FTAA negotiations, wants the pact enacted, indicated MacKay. Asked about stumbling blocks for the FTAA, MacKay said that once the "rhetoric" about the issue is over, "one of the realities that is sinking in now is the [enormous challenge] of what we've committed to do over a 10-year period. We are trying to accomplish something analogous to creating the European Community, which took almost 50 years" to create.
Source: Trade Compass
COMPUTERS
11/8/99
Latin America PC Market grows by 40% in Q3, lead by Mexico.
Compaq's Grows Twice as fast as Industry Average http://gartner3.gartnerweb.com/dq/static/about/press/pr-b9964.html
INTERNET
12/15/99
Ericsson Signs Additional $200 Million Contract for
Pan-Latin America Broadband Wireless Network
Ericsson has signed an additional contract with Diginet
Americas Inc., valued at $200 million to further build out Diginet's fixed
wireless broadband network throughout Latin America. The agreement expands
Ericsson's
previous agreement with Diginet from $100 million to
$300 million.
Through this agreement, Ericsson will continue to provide its multi-service solution for Diginet Americas, including Ericsson's MINI-LINK wireless systems, optimized for IP-based services. Ericsson's highly scaleable AXD 301 ATM switch is providing the core for Diginet's multi-service networks, which supports a full range of high quality data, Internet, voice and video services.
Since Ericsson and Diginet Americas signed their initial contract in June 1999, Diginet has secured additional spectrum and operating licenses in Brazil and Panama, launched commercial services in Sao Paulo, Brazil and has been awarded licenses to offer local and long distance voice telephony services in Argentina.
Diginet's fixed wireless broadband multi-service platforms went into commercial service in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Bogota, Colombia in September of this year. The network, which is one of the first of its kind in Latin America, began serving customers with the Ericsson next generation network in September - just three months after announcement of the initial contract.
"This expanded agreement with Ericsson confirms the synergy between our companies as we worked together over the last six months to enhance the build-out of our networks," said Dave Schmieg, President and CEO of Washington, DC-based Diginet Americas, Inc. "Looking forward, the future is bright as we accelerate our efforts to expand our service offerings and introduce new data and Internet based products into additional markets in Latin America. Ericsson is helping Diveo evolve into the premier telecommunications solution for businesses in Latin America," concluded Schmieg.
"Diginet's recent successes in their acquisition of licenses and network deployment is a clear indication of their capability to excel in the fixed wireless broadband market," said Bengt Forssberg, Executive Vice President, Ericsson Latin America. "The growing partnership between Ericsson and Diginet allows Diveo to concentrate on delivering the highest quality of data and IP based solutions to corporate customers, ISPs and telecom carriers throughout the region."
Source: Press Release
TELECOM
11/30/99
VELOCOM LAUNCHES LATIN AMERICAN BROADBAND AND INTERNET
BUSINESS
Brazilian Operation Adds Packet-Switched License;
and Integrated Communications Provider Plans to Offer Voice, Data and ISP
Services in Latin America
VeloCom Inc., a rapidly growing international broadband
telecommunications company, announced today that its affiliate Vésper
has acquired a packet-switched data license covering its existing telephony
service areas in Brazil. VeloCom will use this license as a starting
point to launch its broadband services business - to provide voice, data,
Internet access and video services - throughout its operations.
"It's always been our intention to provide data, ISP services and video services throughout our Latin American holdings, in addition to voice," said David Leonard, president of VeloCom. "With Vésper's acquisition of the packet-switched data license, we are positioned to accomplish this goal. As construction of our network progresses, we continue to focus our efforts toward the delivery of bundled services over our integrated networks."
VeloCom is one of the largest spectrum license holders in Latin America. It will offer these broadband services through its Brazilian affiliate Vésper, Argentine subsidiary Telelatina SA and through its other wholly owned subsidiaries in Latin America.
"Demand for integrated services and technology convergence are driving our acquisition and partnership opportunities. Our operations in Latin America give us a unique position to secure 'last-mile' access across multiple technology platforms, including WLL, fiber, LMDS, HFC, copper and mobility," continued Leonard. "We will be able to coordinate our state-of-the-art technology and service licenses with existing operations in Latin America to offer customers what they want - a fully integrated, seamless broadband package that's easy to understand and simple to use.
Within the past year, Vésper was awarded "mirror" licenses by the Brazilian government to provide fixed telecommunication services in two regions: the northeast section of Brazil from Rio de Janeiro to the Amazon, and the state of São Paulo. These mirror licenses provide exclusive rights to compete with the incumbent telephone carrier in each region. Together, the areas encompass a population of 125 million people.
VeloCom has grown significantly in Latin America recently. In the past few months, VeloCom has acquired the Latin American assets of broadband wireless access provider Formus Communications International Inc., Argentina-based SLI Wireless SA and Brazil-based Taquari Participaçóes SA. These acquisitions significantly increased VeloCom's ownership in Vésper in addition to expanding its market presence beyond Brazil to Argentina.
VeloCom Inc. is provider of competitive voice, data and Internet services in key markets in Latin America. The company's strategy is to build broadband, last-mile access using wireless and wireline technology in newly liberalized and under-served Latin American telecommunications markets.
Source: Press Release
11/23/99
LATS 2000 Sponsorship Registration Opens:
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration
(NTIA) and the International Trade Administration (ITA) of the U.S. Department
of Commerce, and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), in
conjunction with the Peruvian Ministry of Transportation, Communications,
Housing, and Construction, are organizing the fifth Latin American Telecommunications
Summit. LATS 2000 will be held in Lima, Peru from March 13-16, and will
continue the tradition of bringing leaders from the U.S. private sector
together with their counterparts from the public and private sectors in
Latin America's eleven largest markets.
LATS 2000 will be hosted by the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Robert Mallett, and the Minister of Transportation, Communications, Housing, and Construction of Peru, Alberto Pandolfi. The three and a half day event includes: one-on-one private meetings, workshops and social events. LATS 2000 is intended to promote U.S. trade and policy interests in Latin America and to expand U.S. competitiveness in the region.
U.S. industry sponsorship will be limited to the participation of thirty companies, and sponsorship registration opened November 22, 1999. Those interested in sponsorship opportunities should contact:
Karen Ventimiglia, TIA Project Coordinator LATS 2000
Tel: (202) 588-1926; Fax: (202) 797-3782; E-mail: kventi@tia.eia.org
Web site: http://www.tiaonline.org/international/whatsnew/
For conference information, contact:
Judy Kilpatrick, NTIA/Department of Commerce
Tel: (202) 482-1087; Email: JKilpatrick@ntia.doc.gov
Elizabeth Farrand, ITA/Department of Commerce
Tel: (202) 482-2953 Email: Elizabeth_Farrand@ita.doc.gov
Source: ITA
11/3/99
GLOBENET TO ENTER A MARKETING AGREEMENT FOR SEAMLESS UNDERSEA
FIBER OPTIC CABLE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN LATIN AMERICA AND EUROPE
Washington, DC, Nov. 2 - Global TeleSystems Group, Inc.
(GTS) and GlobeNet Communications Group Limited, through its wholly owned
subsidiary, Atlantica Network (Bermuda) Ltd., have entered into a Memorandum
of Understanding to be one of the first providers of high-quality, seamless
undersea connections between Europe and South America.
The agreement will enable GTS to sell managed bandwidth services from a variety of European cities to Latin America and GlobeNet to sell similar services between Latin America and Europe. The service will be offered on GTS's FLAG Atlantic-1 (FA-1) and trans-European networks and GlobeNet's Atlantica-1 subsea cable system. Both systems will feature a self-healing ring design.
Atlantica-1's first leg -- from New York through Bermuda to Fortaleza, Brazil -- is scheduled to be available in September 2000, with the full northern ring of the system, including Fortaleza to Venezuela to Florida and back to New York, slated to be operational by year-end 2000.
SOURCE: BUSINESS WIRE
11/2/99
AT&T to Form New Company For Latin America
AT&T Corp., the No. 1 U.S. long-distance telephone
company, plans to create a public company serving Latin America by merging
Netstream, a Brazilian phone company it's buying, with South American telecommunications
provider FirstCom Corp.
AT&T said it will own about 60% of the new company, called AT&T Latin America, while shareholders of Coral Gables, Florida-based FirstCom will own 34%. Promon Tecnologia, which is selling Netstream to AT&T, will own 6%.
The South American business-communications market, estimated at $16 billion today, is growing at about 20% a year, AT&T said. The new company will market voice, video and data services to businesses, combining Firstcom's operations in Chile, Peru and Colombia with Netstream's network in Brazil, by far the region's largest market.
"This certainly gives them a very fast start providing the most advanced services to the region," said Bradford Peery, chairman of Mill Valley, California-based investment firm Brad Peery Inc.
AT&T Latin America plans to invest $500 million over the next five years and will apply for listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange. AT&T and Promon Tecnologia will contribute $70 million in cash to the new company.
The new company, which will be based in Coral Gables, will have 700 employees and 1,600 business customers. It will be run by FirstCom Chief Executive Patricio Northland.
Netstream, which AT&T agreed to buy for $300 million in August, provides telecommunications services to businesses in Brazil's largest cities. It's one of several companies building fiber-optic networks following the $19 billion sale last year of state-controlled Telecomunicacoes Brasileiras SA to international phone companies.
Netstream brings some 30,000 kilometers of fiber-optic line and 400 connected buildings in Brazil to the combined company.
Earlier this month, analysts said FirstCom, which provides telephone and Internet services in South America, was looking for a buyer to help speed its entry into markets like Brazil and Argentina. The company has a market value of about $250 million.
"This allows us to accelerate our expansion in the region," Northland said on a conference call.
AT&T said the new Latin America company will connect customers to its planned $3 billion joint venture with British Telecommunications Plc. That venture, called Concert, was set up to compete for multinational business customers against global telecommunications powers such as Deutsche Telekom AG and MCI WorldCom Inc.
AT&T Latin America will complement AT&T's managed network services business, called AT&T Global Network Services, which it acquired from International Business Machines Corp., AT&T said.
Some analysts said AT&T Latin America is likely push into both Argentina and Venezuela, two big markets where it lacks a major presence. AT&T officials estimated that those countries together represent about a $5 billion market.
"There is a very high probability that they will do something in those countries," Peery said.
Some of the world's biggest communications and technology companies are pushing into Latin America, where some analysts see demand for communications services poised for rapid growth.
Telefonica SA, Spain's biggest telephone company, has spent about $10 billion buying telecommunications assets that are being sold by governments in countries such as Brazil, Chile and Peru.
Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, took an 11% stake in Brazil's No. 1 cable-TV provider Globo Cabo SA in August. This month, the Redmond, Washington-based company said it will join with Telefonos de Mexico SA, the biggest Mexican phone company, to develop a Spanish-language Internet portal for the Americas.
"It's a crucial market for growth," said Jimena Urquijo, a Latin American media analyst at Paul Kagan Associates Inc. "It's as though suddenly everyone woke up and realized it."
Source: John Lyons and Michael Lovell at Bloomberg
News
ARGENTINA
INTERNET
11/26/99
Spain's Terra Networks Breaks Ground In Argentina
Spanish Internet firm Terra Networks , fresh from a spectacular
stock debut, expanded its reach in Latin America's growing Internet market
Thursday with the official launch of its Argentine portal.
Terra, the Internet arm of Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica , also plans to spend around $200 million on its expansion throughout Latin America, company officials said.
It already has sites in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Guatemala.
"We have all the necessary ingredients for this project to be a success," Juan Perea, Terra's chief executive, said at a press conference.
The company raised $818 million last week in its U.S. and Spanish public offerings. It is Europe's biggest market-listed Internet company.
With a slew of other big-name players like Brazil's UOL, America Online Inc. and New York-based StarMedia Network Inc. vying for to be the region's biggest Internet firm, Terra tried to play up its local flavor.
"Terra Argentina brings the linguistic and cultural characteristics
of our country to the Internet," said Ines
Leopoldo, Terra Argentina's general manager.
Terra made an earlier entrance into the Argentine Internet market in October when it purchased Buenos Aires-based sites GauchoNet and Donde.com for $9.5 million.
"The goal is to be the leader in the national portal market before 2000 ends. Argentina has a potential market of more than a million users," she said.
The company said it also plans to open new sites in Latin America by March next year, but did not say where.
Terra has already invested $600 million the past year snapping up access and portal firms across the region, where Internet users are expected to increase to 34 million by 2000 from an estimated 8.5 million in 1998.
According to estimates, only 4.0 percent of Internet sites are in Spanish, but they represent the second-largest concentration on the Web after English-language sites, which make up 75 percent.
Source: Reuters
BRAZIL
COMPUTERS
11.4.99
Dell Opens up its First Manufacturing and Customer Care
Facitilty in Latin America - Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil
http://www.virtualpressoffice.com/cgi-vpo/vUser/subscriptionAccess.veos?code=ffb0e232cc2b5ecc443777dbf11d23b4701af98dbda7ff068d15f0a7f5
INTERNET
12/7/99
ISS and Embratel Launch First Remote Managed Security
Service in Latin America
Embratel (NYSE: EMT), Internet and telecommunications
leader in Latin America and a subsidiary of MCI Worldcom (NASDAQ: WCOM),
and Internet Security Systems (ISS) (NASDAQ: ISSX), a leading global provider
of security management solutions for e-business, today announced that they
have signed an agreement to provide Latin America's first complete line
of Managed Security Services. According to the agreement, Embratel will
be Brazil's first telecommunications company to offer Internet and Intranet
solutions combined with remote security monitoring services for around-the-clock
information protection.
Powered by ISS, Embratel Managed Security Services will
enable Embratel's customers to outsource their security for 24x7 remote
monitoring and management, ensuring the confidentiality, availability and
integrity of network information. Utilizing this critical outsource solution,
customers will be able to better focus on core
business issues while being assured that their networks
and systems are being actively monitoring and protected. Based on the agreement,
ISS will be the integrator of all security technologies, as well as provide
expert consulting services to clients.
With this operational alliance, Embratel is pioneering a new service in the telecommunications arena, further differentiating the company in its market.
"By selecting ISS as our alliance partner, Embratel considered
the company's international experience which, since its foundation, in
1994, has been demonstrating a high level of security expertise and professionalism,"
affirms Eduardo Levy, Embratel's service director. "Although ISS has been
operating in Brazil for less than a
year, it has already proved its competence by obtaining
excellent operational results."
"This agreement confirms the growth and maturity of ISS in Brazil. With this alliance, ISS expects, in conjunction with Embratel, to extend our leadership in the security management marketplace to reach additional customers in telecommunications sector," said Leonardo Scudere, senior country director of ISS.
To provide these services, ISS will open its first Latin American Network Operations Center (NOC) in Rio de Janeiro. This center will provide 24x7 security monitoring and security management from a centralized, remote location.
About Embratel
Embratel was created in September 16, 1965, with the objective of unifying Brazil through telecommunications. In July 29, 1998, U.S.-based MCI WorldCom, acquired the control of the company.
MCI WorldCom operates in the market of systems integration, Internet and local telephony services in the United States, and has made important improvements in the integration of long distance services with local wireless telephony, Internet, data transmission, paging, teleconference, and other international telecommunication services. MCI WorldCom offers one of the most advanced worldwide portfolios of Internet ant Intranet products and services. As one of the world's most advanced backbones, MCI WorldCom operates as the platform for access services, software, hosting and searches in Web sites, operating at a record speed of 622 megabits per second.
The union of Embratel/MCI WorldCom represents the beginning of a new age for the communications in Brazil and Latin America, marked by the globalization of telecommunications, with high technological standards and quality of services.
Embratel, which has the largest telecommunications network in Latin America, and the only domestic optical fiber network in Brazil, offers the best response to domestic and international telecommunications services in the country, in the areas of long distance telephony, data communication, teleinformatics, text communication, TV and Radio signal transmission and maritime communication. The company has the largest Internet backbone in Latin America, and more than 80% of the Brazilian market.
Source: Press Release
TELECOM
11/23/99
WLL Technology Arrives in Brazil
The U.S. Commercial Service in Brasilia recently reported
that Brazilian Telecommunication Mirror Companies have begun purchasing
Wireless Local Loop (WLL) technology. INTELIG, a mirror company for
the long distance calls is seeking suppliers of WLL technology. MEGATEL
(the state of São Paulo's mirror company), has a contract with Nortel
and Ericsson and is getting ready to begin operations in São Paulo,
is also looking for WLL technology suppliers.
Source: ITA
CHILE
TELECOM
COSTA RICA
TELECOM
11/23/99
ICETEL Again Extends Deadline for Offers:
The Costa Rican Institute of Electricity and Telecommunications
(ICETEL) has again extended the deadline for offers presentation to December
15, 1999 at 15:30 hours. As reported in previous newsletters, ICETEL
recently announced an invitation for the selection of an additional U.S.
telecommunications carrier to connect the United States telephone network
with the Costa Rican telephone network, for public switched telephone traffic.
For further information, contact:
Rodrigo Rojas
Commercial Specialist
U.S. Embassy San Jose
Tel. (506) 220-3939, ext. 2295
Fax. (506) 231-4783
Email: Rodrigo.Rojas@mail.doc.gov
Source: ITA
COLOMBIA
TELECOM
10/21/99
Colombia's Communications Ministry expects to offer three
separate PCS licenses in 1Q00, ministerial adviser Maria Fernanda Nunez
told BNA.
Sale organizers are currently defining the scope of an investment bank advisory contract that would establish the minimum price and manage the sale of the licenses, Nunez said.
Sources quoted in local press estimated the total price at between US$150mn and US$300mn, but the government will wait for the investment bank's recommendation before presenting an official figure, she said.
A Senate Commission this week approved a bill outlining the introduction of PCS services. The bill must now go through a Senate Plenary, a House of Representatives Commission and finally a House of Representatives Plenary, she said.
Meanwhile ministers, unions and private sector representatives are studying the General Telecommunications Bill before presenting their views to a Communications Ministry steering committee. Minister Claudia de Francisco will then amend the new legislation accordingly and present it to Congress.
Source: Business News America Oct 8, 99
ECUADOR
GUATEMALA
JAMAICA
TELECOM
10.27.99
R 251309Z OCT 99
FM AMEMBASSY KINGSTON
TO RUCPCIM/CIMS NTDB WASHDC
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
INFO RUEHDG/AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO 2138
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3994
BT
UNCLAS KINGSTON 003440
USDOC FOR 3134/USFCS/OIO/WH/RD
USDOC FOR 4121/IEP/OMA
USDOC FOR 4322/ITA/IEP/WH/OMCB/SIEGELMAN
USDOC FOR 6020/ITA/TD/OEPC/IEPD
USDOC FOR 6131/ITA/TD
SANTO DOMINGO FOR FCS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: BTIO, EIND, ETRD, KTDB, SOCI, JM
SUBJECT: IMI - NEW MOBILE WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATION
NETWORKS FOR JAMAICA - REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS.
1. THE GOVERNMENT OF JAMAICA HAS ANNOUNCED THE
COMMENCEMENT OF BIDDING FOR LICENSES FOR THE OPERATION OF TWO ADDITIONAL
WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
IN JAMAICA. THE BIDDING PERIOD, OR AUCTION, CLOSES ON
DECEMBER 17, 1999
2. ON OCTOBER 19, 1999, MINISTER OF COMMERCE AND
TECHNOLOGY, PHILLIP PAULWELL, ANNOUNCED THE COMMENCEMENT OF BIDDING, OR
A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR THE AUCTIONING OF TWO MOBILE WIRELESS NETWORK
LICENSES IN JAMAICA. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS IN STEP WITH A PREVIOUS ANNOUNCEMENT
BY THE MINISTER (IN SEPTEMBER 1999) IN
WHICH A NEW TELECOMMUNICATIONS REGIME WAS OUTLINED AS
WELL AS A NEW AGREEMENT WITH CABLE AND WIRELESS JAMAICA LIMITED.
3. THE MINISTER, PROVIDING DETAILS OF THE BID OFFER, SAID THE AVAILABLE BANDS INCLUDED 800 MHZ, 900 MHZ, 1800 MHZ AND 1900 MHZ WHICH WOULD BE ALLOCATED BY ALL-ISLAND LICENCES THROUGH COMPETITIVE BIDDING. HE SAID THE LICENCES WOULD BE AUCTIONED FOR A FIXED TERM NOT EXCEEDING 10 YEARS AND THERE WAS NO AUTOMATIC RIGHT OF RENEWAL, ALTHOUGH LICENSES WOULD BE RENEWABLE FOR 5 YEARS.
4. BIDS FOR LICENSES SHOULD BE ACCOMPANIED BY A GUARANTEE OF 50 PERCENT OF THE SUM BID, WHICH WOULD NOT BE REFUNDABLE IF THE BIDDER DEFAULTED. FOLLOWING THE GRANTING OF THE TWO LICENSES, NO NEW CELLULAR LICENSES WILL BE ISSUED UNTIL THREE YEARS AFTER THE PASSING OF THE NEW TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT.
5. COMPANIES SEEKING TO CONDUCT DUE DILIGENCE BEFORE MAKING BIDS ARE EXPECTED TO BE ALLOWED TO IMPORT THEIR EQUIPMENT FREE OF DUTIES AND GOVERNMENT TAXES. AS SOON AS THE LICENSES HAVE BEEN GRANTED, COMPANIES WILL BE PLACED ON THE SAME FOOTING AS OTHER TELECOM PROVIDERS - IN RELATION TO IMPORT DUTIES AND TAXES. A TEMPORARY FACILITATION UNIT WITH TELECOMMUNICATIONS SPECIALISTS WILL BE SET UP IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND TECHNOLOGY SUPPORTED BY JAMPRO (JAMAICA'S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGENCY) TO ASSIST INVESTORS IN CARRYING OUT THEIR DUE DILIGENCE IN JAMAICA.
6. THE AUCTION WILL BE CLOSED ON DECEMBER 17, 1999.
LICENSES WILL BE AWARDED TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER IN EACH BAND. HOWEVER, IF
THE HIGHEST BIDS ARE WITHIN 5 PERCENT OF EACH OTHER, THE AUCTION WILL PROCEED
TO ANOTHER ROUND UNTIL ONLY ONE BID REMAINS. BIDDING DOCUMENTS, AT A COST
OF US$ 1,000 WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE TO INTERESTED
POTENTIAL INVESTORS.
7. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT
MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND TECHNOLOGY
36 TRAFALGAR ROAD
KINGSTON 10
JAMAICA
PHONE: (876) 929-8990
FOREIGN COMMERCIAL SERVICE
U.S. EMBASSY KINGSTON
2 OXFORD ROAD
KINGSTON 5
JAMAICA
PHONE: (876) 926-8115
FAX : (876) 920-2580
EMAIL: USFCSKINGSTON@JAMWEB.NET
MEXICO
11.4.99
CREATION OF TECH CORRIDOR
The Dallas Daily News reported in a 9/5/99 article that
U.S. multinationals have turned "the pleasant city of Guadalajara"
located 350 miles west of Mexico City into Mexico's high
tech mecca. The most important newcomers are contract manufacturers
(Solectron Corp, SCI Systems Inc., Flextronics International
Ltd.) and they are the ones fueling the information technology
boom. Most set up operations in Guadalajara between
1996 and 1998. They produce products and components sold by well-known
brands such as Hewlett Packard Co., Microsoft Corp.'s
Web TV Networks and Dell Computer Corp.
The contract manufacturers have generated thousands of
jobs and created a Silicon Valley South "without the silicon".
According to Brad Knight, director of Mexico operations
for Flextronics (a California company with nearly $2 billion in
sales last year) "You've got seven of the top 10 contract
manufacturers here in Jalisco--it's an unparalleled cluster. But
we're all just swamped with work. We're on fire."
In the state of Jalisco, where Guadalajara is located,
120 companies now employ 60,000 in telecommunications, electronics,
and the computer industry. In 1995, there were
only 5,000 jobs in these areas.
"Significant developments are taking place (in Guadalajara)
to the point toward the formation of an interrelated industrial
complex that already shows some of the basic features
that characterize the original Silicon Valley phenomenon" according
to a recent report by the Center for Research on
Information Technology and Organizations at the University of California
at
Irvine. "Those features include the generation
of spin-offs, the creation of production networks and the growth of research
and development activities," wrote researchers of UC-Irvine
and Juan J. Palacios of the University of Guadalajara.
IBM put Guadalajara on the map in the 1970's when it opened
a plant to build typewriters for customers in Canada and Latin
America. Today the plant makes computer subassemblies
and most of the Think Pads sold in North America.
Many other corporations rely on factories in Mexico
as well. Motorola Corp. has a huge plant for transistors and diodes,
while Hewlett-Packard has a design center for printers.
Eastman Kodak makes floppy disks and comopact discs, Lucent Technologies
makes telecommunications equipment. A number of firms
make printed circuit boards.
Although Compaq and Dell do not have factories in Mexico,
contract manufacturers make motherboards and other components
that are shipped to their factories in Texas and elsewhere.
According to the state government of Jalisco, 30% of the
components currently used in electronics plants in Guadalajara
are made locally. In 1995 it was only 5%.
Wages at most contract manufacturers start at about $6
per day for blue-collar workers, but rise quickly as employees stay with
the company. Benefits at Flextronics include health
and life insurance, free English classes, adult education, free medical
care from the company doctor.
According to Michael Donner, corporate director of communications
and marketing for Solectron "As production life
cycles are getting shorter, it's harder for OEMs to keep
up with manufacturing.
Source: Virginia Krivis
TELECOM
PANAMA
TELECOM
PARAGUAY
PERU
TELECOM
PUERTO RICO
TELECOM
URUGUAY
TELECOM
VENEZUELA
TELECOM
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