- Brazilian companies will have spent $1bn publicising the mobile internet by the end of 2001 but so far they are seeing little response from the public. According to Teletime, a local trade journal, only 800,000 (3%) of Brazil's 24 million cellular subscribers have registered for WAP services. Of these only 15,000 (0.06%) access WAP sites at least once a month. The figures are at odds with those given out by Telesp Celular.

It claims that half of its 1.4 million subscribers with WAP-enabled handsets are 'regular' users.

- Motorola and Lucent Technologies are claiming the first 3G contracts in Latin America. Both will supply CDMA 1XRTT equipment to Telesp Celular, the Brazilian carrier controlled by Portugal Telecom. Motorola's $147m contract covers the non-metropolitan part of Sao Paulo State and the region served by Global Telecom, a Telesp subsidiary. Lucent's contract - valued at $130m - covers metropolitan Sao Paulo and the port of Santos. Telesp Celular has 4.5 million customers and the capacity gains that 1XRTT brings will be as important as the enhanced data rates.

- Pegaso, a Mexican CDMA operator owned by Leap Wireless, Sprint PCS and a local investor, came bottom of the class when its quality of service was examined by the regulator in May. An embarrassing 11.9% of outgoing calls were not completed, compared with 2.8% at Telcel. Dropped calls reached 2.2% compared with 1.2% at Telcel and 0.3% at Unefon, another CDMA operator. But help may be on the way for Pegaso - reports say that Telefonica is buying 49% of the company.