Canada’s Optiva negotiates new deals with LatAm MVNOs, telcos

Canadian telecoms systems provider Optiva is negotiating new contracts with Latin American MVNOs and mobile carriers following its recently announced business support systems (BSS) project in Colombia with Grupo Éxito MVNO Móvil Éxito, Optiva's Latin America chief, Abel Herrera, told BNamericas.

As part of that project, Optiva upgraded Móvil Éxito’s BSS to the cloud, integrating it with Google Cloud Platform. 

“Latin America is one of the main regions for Optiva," said Herrera. "We're investing for new wins in the region, mainly with MVNOs. There are lots of new MVNOs coming to the region and we're talking to the main tier 1 telcos in the region eventually supporting them."

Colombia's Móvil Éxito was the first MVNO to be launched by a retailer in the country, back in 2013. Grupo Éxito is the largest retailer in Colombia.

The MVNO runs on Millicom’s Tigo mobile network and reports over 500,000 subscribers to date.

Optiva has been Móvil Éxito’s BSS provider since the MVNO’s launch. According to Herrera, his company beat seven other suppliers in the selection process to win the BSS deal.

With the migration to the cloud, Móvil Éxito is expected to be able to expand into new customer segments, including the high-ARPU postpaid segment, and introduce new service capabilities such as native VoLTE and other market services.

“We´ve been in this business for 24 years. What we’ve been doing in the last few years is a transition into cloud-native kinds of technologies and 5G support,” said Herrera.

In addition to Tigo and Móvil Éxito in Colombia, Optiva provides services to América Móvil's MVNOs in Mexico and in Peru, and TSTT in Trinidad & Tobago, among others.

"I'd say we have close to 20 operators as customers, including MVNOs," said Herrara.

However, one of the challenges for Optiva and other BSS/OSS providers has been the consolidation of mobile carriers in Latin America, which reduces the potential number of customers and prospects.

Optiva competes with BSS and OSS [operation support systems] providers like Amdocs, Netcracker and even Swedish firm Ericsson. 

Recently, Telefónica expanded a partnership with Amdocs in a new, multi-year cloud contract for its Argentine, Chilean and Peruvian units, adding to similar deals in Brazil.

In Mexico, Amdocs last year inked a five-year contract with AT&T to migrate its own systems deployed with the telco to the cloud.

In Colombia, another MVNO, LOV Telecomunicaciones, last year launched on Cyan’s BSS/OSS platform.