América Móvil playing to win in Brazilian gaming industry

Mexican telecoms group América Móvil has launched a gaming service in Brazil, Latin America's largest gaming and e-sports market and the world’s third largest, with the aim of leveraging an important industry segment.

Branded Claro Gaming, the launch follows similar ones in Peru and Argentina in recent months.  

The offer is aimed at Claro's 9.1mn fixed broadband clients and consists of 500MB broadband speeds (even faster than those offered in traditional packages), dedicated connection links with 32TB of capacity, a latency-reduction solution and specialized customer support services for an extra monthly fee.

Asked about the service by BNamericas at a press conference, Márcio Carvalho, marketing director of Claro Brasil, said that the Brazilian plan is more advanced than that launched by Claro Perú, for example, and that it was developed with a specific focus on the local market.

The executive added that América Móvil was coordinating initiatives in order to tackle the gaming market as part of a broader strategy.

Investment figures were not disclosed – the company does not reveal capex for products, said Carvalho – but it falls under Claro Brasil's earmarked investments of 8-10bn reais (US$2.0-2.5bn) for 2019 in network modernization and telecom engineering.

The company expects to leverage on its network of 212,000km of optical cables and around 19,000 active radio base stations (RBS) throughout Brazil, in addition to 18,000km of submarine cables.

The solution, co-designed with gamers and e-sports companies, is said to reduce packet loss and latency time during games by optimizing the response time between machines and game servers for better performance.

Carvalho said Claro is investing in network slicing and edge computing, which brings the content closer to the customer – two elements that will be key in future 5G technology.

Clients who contract the service will receive dedicated support from call center experts with experience in the gaming universe and technical knowledge. Carvalho revealed that gaming-trained artificial intelligence is also being developed to provide dedicated support via chatbots.

Claro Gaming also has developed dedicated solutions for console connection, connecting the equipment to the router using physical cabling, and Wi-Fi optimization with mesh technology and multiple transmission points installed in the home.

There are also monthly packages of benefits for gamers, including travel and discounts.

“Claro Gaming is created as a platform designed to continue evolving constantly. We will add new partners, new technologies and new services over time,” said Carvalho at the conference.