OWNING THE ONRAMP.THE BUSINESS OF PROVIDING INTERNET ACCESS See how to access the Internet. IN LATIN AMERICA Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. IS fast moving from techie A technical person. See hacker and programmer. garage hobby to battle of industry titans. Brazil alone started out with more than 500 Internet access providers (ISPs) this year. That number is expected to fall by more than half as multinationals and big local players consolidate the market. Regional lSPs--unheard of just months ago--are popping out of the woodwork. Telefonica, by virtue of its dominant telecom presence, remains the 800-pound gorilla. AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. will be in the race by year's end, drawn like the others to the region's red-hot growth. Distribution and branding are the key to this communications commodity. Being a regionwide player brings sales muscle for advertisers looking to cover the whole market and potential volume discounts on equipment and infrastructure for the biggest players. The wild card? StarMedia. Its US$2 billion in stock makes the online content company a player in any market it chooses to enter, and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Fernando Espuelas Fernando Espuelas (b. August 6 1966 in Montevideo, Uruguay) is a Latino entrepreneur and the founder of StarMedia Network, the first pan-Latin Internet portal in 1996 and the first IPO for a Latin Internet company in 1999. In 2002, Espuelas founded VOY, L.L.C. says he'll get into the access business as soon as he finds an ISP (1) See in-system programmable. (2) (Internet Service Provider) An organization that provides access to the Internet. Connection to the user is provided via dial-up, ISDN, cable, DSL and T1/T3 lines. at the right price. Here are the main contenders:
ISP STRATEGY
Telefonica Interactiva Spin off online business in the near future
IFX Roll up local ISPs, bundle software
Impsat Transport Internet traffic on existing
telecom infrastructure for businesses
Global Datatel Concentrate on top companies;
consumers are gravy
AOL Latin America Build network, massive marketing campaign.
bundle software
StarMedia Acquire existing service provider
ISP MANTRA ESTIMATED USERS
Telefonica Interactiva We have customers; 500,000
we need content
IFX Beat AOL to the punch 50,000
Impsat Owning the pipeline counts 30,000
Global Datatel Online biz-to-biz: where 10,000
the moneys at
AOL Latin America AOL ergo Internet None yet
StarMedia What are our stock None yet
options worth today?
SOURCE: LATIN TRADE
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