As the field for carrier-class network access, connectivity, VoIP and triple-play equipment continues to expand in Latin America, companies like Patton (News - Alert) Electronics are fielding larger and more experienced teams throughout the region.

 

The Maryland-based company has appointed Ernesto Casas as regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean in a bid to capture business in this burgeoning space.

 

"Right now the telecom market in Latin America is red hot," said Burton Patton, executive vice president. "In the current global economic climate, that is very good news.”

 

The appointment, says Patton, reflects the company’s commitment to ongoing investment in Latin America, building on a substantial installed base that includes Avantel (News - Alert), Mexico's premier IP-based services provider. 

 

“Yet Patton has a longstanding relationship with Latin America and we're in it for the long haul. Mr. Casas has both the technology expertise and the executive know-how to serve the needs of the region's fast-growing telecom and IT infrastructures," said Patton.

 

As Latin America director with 3COM, Casas was able to double the voice business in a single year. At CANTV (News - Alert), his restructured product development cycle reduced time-to-market by 60 percent, from 59 weeks to less than 12 weeks, according to the company.

 

An example of this growth can be seen in Telefonica, which announced last week a fourth-quarter profit increase of 89 percent in the region.  

 

Patton expects Casas skills to translate well into this market, as the regional director has held professorships at Universidad Humbold and Politecnico de Las Fuerzas Armadas de Venezuela. In his academic work, Casa has studied the effects of broadband adoption, Public Wireless and IP convergence on human communications.

 

"Ernie has sharp business acumen combined with in-depth understanding of the market-shaping technologies. As a native Spanish speaker--which of course is a must--he understands the regional culture. He is the ideal leader for Patton's Latin America team," said Patton.

 

As TMCnet recently reported, Patton has continued to make moves in the global business and carrier-class network access, connectivity, VoIP and triple-play equipment market in recent years, and further extended its network extension with the CopperLink Model 2110 Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) Booster series.

 

This micro-sized booster is designed to transparently extend 100-Mbps Ethernet traffic along with IEEE (News - Alert) 802.3af PoE up to 656 feet, more than double the current standard.