Mexico's Telcel working on 2012 LTE launch

Mexican mobile operator Telcel has carried out LTE network trials at its Mexico City headquarters as a forerunner to next year's planned commercial launch.

The trial network reached speeds ranging from 50 Mbps to 96 Mbps, according to Latin American telecoms, IT and business publication TyN, which quoted Marco Quatorze, director of value-added services at Telcel, as saying that users of the commercial LTE service will be able to receive a constant rate of 10 Mbps on their mobile device.

Quatorze also said the mobile operator will offer WiMAX-based services as a complement to its forthcoming LTE network.

TyN added that earlier this year Telcel's parent company America Movil predicted that it will launch LTE in more than one Latin American market in 2012.

The company currently operates in 18 markets in the region. According to regulator Cofetel, Mexico was home to almost 95 million mobile subscribers as of May this year.

America Movil itself said Telcel had 66.91 million mobile customers as of the end of June, giving it roughly 70% of the Mexican mobile market.

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