BT aims to boost its presence in Latin America

Telco looking to expand services and launch new products in the region

BT is looking to increase its presence in Latin America by 20 per cent, a move that could be beneficial to CIOs of multinational companies with divisions in the area, according to one Gartner analyst.

BT has said it will put an additional 250 new people in the region and expand MPLS and Ethernet services into 21 new cities.

It will also launch more than 30 new products or services in the region.

Managing vice president of Gartner, Eric Paulak, said: "The move will take advantage of existing assets the company has in Latin America. BT bought Comsat in 2007 and therefore has a satellite operation and a fibre infrastructure in the region.

"There isn't much room for growth in the UK as the amount of revenue BT can get from voice and data is limited and shrinking, because of increased competition.

"In addition, it sold off its wireless assets, which became O2 about eight years ago, and so strategically this has left it with limited growth potential in the UK.

"BT is actually in a better position across Latin America than some of the big American companies such as AT&T and Verizon," he added.

The move follows an announcement by Orange that it is also looking to upgrade its network infrastructure in Latin America.