Latin American mobile telephony providers are scrambling to catch up with new IT security requirements, US networking company Juniper’s (Nasdaq: JNPR) Americas international division VP, Tim Lambie, told BNamericas.

Exponential smartphone growth in the region has carriers reevaluating their positions towards the securing of data flows across those devices, the executive said.

“Now with smartphones, we have millions of data devices, all of which are surfing the internet and all of which have similar requirements to those that an end-user might have with a PC,” he said. “It’s one of the things that mobile carriers have discovered in the last 18 months and has kind of caught them off guard… if you have a million smart phones on a network, then you have to secure them, whether they’re actively using the internet or not. This has driven the security requirements up by an order of magnitude.”

Data storage and caching represent other IT areas that providers are looking to upgrade, the executive said.

SERVICE PROVIDERS

Juniper’s financial results in the Latin American service provider market have not been rosy, Lambie admitted, noting that the dour economic situation sunk investments last year. Meanwhile, Juniper recorded flat growth in this area.

Companies in the segment are now showing more confidence about the global economic situation, but are only beginning to turn up technology investments.

“‘Rebounding’ might be too strong a word,” he said. “But we do see them recovering slowly as they attempt to figure out exactly where they need to spend their money and where they can get return on investments.”

ENTERPRISE SEGMENT

In spite of battling tough conditions in the service provider segment, Juniper expects the Latin American enterprise segment to see double-digit growth in both revenues and client base this year, Lambie said. Juniper is making in-roads into the segment with its IT security solutions such as firewalls, and its switching devices.

Enterprise sales increased more than 50% last year, though Lambie admitted that Juniper was “growing from a much smaller base.” Juniper saw strong enterprise sales in countries such as Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, though results fell short of expectations in Argentina.

Argentina “continues to struggle with problems of their own making,” he said. “Not only do they have the macroeconomic challenges that the rest of the planet has, but they have additional challenges that are unique to the country.”

Within Latin America, Juniper has offices in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Argentina. The company relies on channel partners for almost 100% of regional sales.

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