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| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1984 as Radio Movil Dipsa, in 1989 as rebranded "Telcel" |
| Headquarters | Miguel Hidalgo, Distrito Federal, Mexico |
| Industry | Communications |
| Products | Fixed and Mobile telephony, Mobile Broadband |
| Parent |  América Móvil |
| Website | www.telcel.com.mx |
Telcel is Mexico's largest mobile phone carrier, owned by América Móvil. Founded in 1989 and based in Mexico City, Telcel is the leading provider of wireless communications services in Mexico. As of December 31, 2006, Telcel's cellular network covered more than 63% of the geographical area of Mexico, including all major cities, and 90% of Mexico's population. Telcel holds concessions to operate a wireless network in all nine geographic regions in Mexico using both the 850 megahertz and 1900 megahertz radio spectrums. As of December 31, 2007, Telcel had approximately over 57 million cellular subscribers and, according to Cofetel, as of July 2008, an approximately 77.2% share of the Mexican wireless market.
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Voice services
Telcel provides services in AMPS, GSM, and TDMA. Because of the wide base of older technologies like TDMA and AMPS they are still in use.
Telcel offers voice services under a variety of rate plans to meet the needs of different market segments. The rate plans are either postpaid, where the customer is billed monthly for the previous month, or prepaid, where the customer pays in advance for a specified volume of use over a specified period. Telcel believes the prepaid market represents a large and growing under-penetrated market in Mexico.
Telcel also offers several prepaid plans, none of which includes activation or monthly charges. Prepaid customers purchase a prepaid card for a specific amount of airtime and also receive additional services such as voicemail and caller ID. As part of its prepaid service offering, Telcel provides new customers with an Amigo Kit, which includes airtime, a handset, a charger and other accessories.
Prepaid customers are often unwilling to make a fixed financial commitment or do not have the credit profile to purchase postpaid plans. Prepaid plans serve the needs of distinct consumer segments such as the youth market, families, customers with variable income who otherwise would not be able to obtain service due to their credit profile, and customers who prefer to pay in cash. Prepaid customers also include parents who wish to control costs for their children.
Push-to-Talk Services
In 2004, Telcel began to offer push-to-talk services over its GSM network, though the main Push-to-talk provider in Mexico, as well as in other countries, is NEXTEL.
Data services
In January 2002, Telcel began to offer two-way SMS to its customers. Telcel began to offer MMS through GSM technology to postpaid and prepaid customers in March 2003. Since December 2004, postpaid and prepaid customers may send and receive short messages to and from users of networks in the United States and more recently to and from 34 other countries. In April 2002, Telcel became the first Mexican operator to offer premium information services through its SMS capabilities, including weather reports, financial quotes, entertainment news and even had relationships with the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Football League (NFL) of the United States.
Telcel supplies data services in GPRS, EDGE, 3G and 3.5G.
Ideas Telcel
Through the Ideas Telcel portal, Telcel offers its customers mobile entertainment services, including SMS, MMS, e-mail, news and personalized downloads, such as ringtones, screensavers, text and video games, wallpapers, and interactive forums. In May 2006, Telcel launched TV content services which allow certain customers to access news, cartoon, documentary and sports channels through their handsets.
Internet
Wireless application protocol, or "WAP", is a global standard designed to make Internet services available to mobile telephone users. Telcel offers WAP including e-mail, data and information services and electronic commerce transactions. Telcel launched its WAP gateway in September 2000, enabling its prepaid and postpaid users in those regions to access e-mail, banking, and a variety of reservation and other types of electronic commerce services.
Oficina Móvil Telcel
"Oficina Móvil" allows Telcel customers to access e-mail and personal information management tools, such as calendars and address books, through their handsets. Through strategic alliances with companies such as Research in Motion, Palm and Microsoft they offer customers products like the BlackBerry, the Treo and Windows Mobile handsets which Telcel customers use to manage multiple e-mail accounts, review and edit e-mail attachments and surf the web. Telcel also offers data coverage in Mexico and other countries where they have roaming agreements using GPRS, EDGE and recently UMTS / HSDPA celular technology in most places.
Roaming
Telcel offers international roaming services to its subscribers. Subscribers paying the international roaming fees are able to roam outside of Mexico, using the networks of cellular service providers with which Telcel has entered into roaming agreements. Telcel has entered into approximately 385 such agreements covering GSM and TDMA[1] networks around the world. Telcel offers international roaming services including special rates to subscribers roaming in the U.S. border, the U.S., Canada and other markets.
Marketing
Telcel develops, customer and brand awareness, through its marketing and promotion efforts and customer service. It advertises aggressively. Telcel sponsors a NASCAR Busch Series race, the Telcel-Motorola 200 every year as well as professional tennis Abierto Mexicano TELCEL, golf tournaments, soccer, and other events in Mexico. In addition, Telcel employs concentrated advertising efforts to promote specific products and services such as the Amigo Kit.
Sales and Distribution
Telcel markets its wireless services primarily through exclusive distributors located throughout Mexico. As of March 31, 2007, Telcel had relationships with a network of approximately 1,171 exclusive distributors, who sell Telcel's services and products through approximately 48,320 points of sale and receive commissions.
Telcel also distributes prepaid cards and handsets, the latter as part of the Telcel Amigo Kit consisting of handsets and free airtime ranging from 25 to 250 minutes, through distributors that include Telmex, Sears, Sanborns and its network of retail outlets. It is estimated that, as of March 31, 2007, prepaid cards are available through approximately 150,000 points of sale in Mexico.
Telcel sells prepaid airtime principally through the sale of cards. Telcel has made arrangements in the United States to allow for the purchase of airtime for Telcel postpaid and prepaid phone subscribers in Mexico. Money is applied at merchant retail locations in the United States, dollars get converted to pesos at the current exchange rate, and the airtime is applied immediately to the handset in Mexico. The Telcel subscriber will receive an SMS message alerting them of the added airtime. This process has been known to be called value transfer system. Companies like Global Payment Solutions (GPS) have been leading the distribution of this value-transfer model in the United States.
The most recent marketing strategy is mainly promoted in TV and movie theaters, the slogan they use is "I'm Telcel as are millions of other Mexicans"
Customer Service
Approximately 55% of Telcel's employees are dedicated to customer service.
Complaints filed with the Mexican Consumer Protection Bureau (PROFECO ) numbered 3,078 during 2008, with a little over $1,600,000 pesos incurred in fines. [1]
3G Technology
Telcel officially launched its 3G (850Mhz Band) services on February 25, 2008 initially in the cities of: Guadalajara, Hermosillo, Mérida, León, Morelia, Monterrey, Tijuana, Puebla, Santiago de Querétaro and México D.F.. This is the 2nd 3G Wireless Network after Iusacell's 3G Nationwide CDMA2000 network, and then expanding to other cities to finally become a national 3G network which will reach more than 350 cities. Telcel's 3G network is based on UMTS / HSDPA technology.
With this technology, the company's users now can have high speed internet, video calls, television and other media options in their phones including the postpaid and prepaid customers.
Telcel is the exclusive carrier of the Apple iPhone 3G in Mexico.
References
External links
- Telcel official site in Spanish
- América Móvil
- Ideas Telcel
- Atención a Clientes en Línea
- Datum Telcel
- Círculo Azul Telcel
- Eventos Telcel
- Mexican Consumer Protection Bureau (PROFECO)
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