IBM Brazil, Telefonica Reach Management Deal

By David Sims

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

Telefonica, a telecommunications technology provider, has announced an agreement with IBM (News - Alert) in Brazil to manage its midrange servers.

 

With the agreement, Telefonica officials say, IBM's Services Center in Hortolandia, near Sao Paulo, will support the operation of all the Telefonica's midrange servers in Brazil. IBM said it also will provide support and maintenance services 24-7 to keep the company's IT infrastructure running and available to internal and external clients.

 

In other news, Telefonica has renewed a contract with IBM in Argentina for the same services. The contracts, valued at $50 million, were signed in July 2008 and run through the end of 2011.

 

Earlier this week TMCnet had the news that Datamonitor reported that Microsoft (News - Alert) selected Telefonica to provide its VoIP services to Windows Live Messenger customers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, the U.S. and Venezuela.

According to Telefonica, Datamonitor said, its Voype will use Microsoft's online channels to promote this new service and hopes to generate further revenues in the region by using a package strategy with its Speedy lines (ADSL).

 

With this service, Telefonica officials say, Windows Live customers will be able to make calls directly from their PCs (PSTN-Out) to any fixed or mobile phone in the world without leaving Windows Live.

 

Datamonitor said the service has first been rolled out in the US and will soon be available to customers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. During the second phase, Windows Live users will also be able to receive calls on their PC (PSTN-In).

 

Last week Boingo Wireless, a WiFi (News - Alert) company, and Telefonica signed an agreement for WiFi access.

Through the agreement, Boingo will add Telefonica to its growing Boingo Roaming Network, giving Boingo members access to nearly 2,600 incremental hotspots.

 

Additionally, Telefonica customers will be able to log in to 7,000 Boingo hotspots throughout the world, including more than 20 of the top airports in North America.