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Brazil’s justice ministry plants an eagle eye on top mobile operators (Brazil)

  • August 26th, 2008
  • 12:48 pm

Brazil’s justice ministry has begun an investigation into possible anti-competitive practices at the leading mobile operators Vivo, Claro, TIM and Oi. The companies together control over 95 % of mobile users in Brazil. Ministry is pointing finger at the operators for setting interconnection rates that prevent the successful entry of smaller operators on the market. In addition to the price squeeze, the competition authorities found evidence of possible collusion between Vivo, TIM and Claro to set interconnection rates. Ministry has asked market regulator Anatel to develop a cost-based model for determining the termination rates. Secretariat at the ministry, SDE, with the help of the competition authority DPDE is heading the investigation.

Oi purchases 3.9 million preferred shares of Tele Norte Celular (Brazil)

  • August 21st, 2008
  • 1:50 pm

Oi (Telemar), Brazil, in a public offer, has purchased 3.9 million preferred shares of Tele Norte Celular Participacoes, the controller of regional mobile operator Amazonia Celular.
For the purchase Oi paid a total of BRL130 million (USD80.5 million) for the shares and it now holds 94% of the preferred shares and 59% of the capital stock of the company.

   

Mobile handsets that work as webcams for videoconference launched by Intelbras (Brazil)

  • August 19th, 2008
  • 1:54 pm

According to a local media report, Brazilian mobile phone and computer manufacturer Intelbras has started selling its first three cell phone models. Intelbras models are A6, M100 and M500. These models are equipped with

  • MP3
  • MP4
  • Bluetooth
  • Digital camera
  • FM radio

Handsets can be used to work as webcams for videoconference.
Price: BRL299 to BRL399

However, Intelbras is very keen to boost and expand its portfolio.

Telemig Cellular completes a share buy back programme worth $550 million (Brazil)

  • August 19th, 2008
  • 1:48 pm

Telemig Cellular, Brazilian mobile operator, and it’s parent Telemig Celular Participacoes, have reportedly completed the share buy back programme, the reason being the facilitation of the passing of control of both companies to fellow telecoms operator Vivo.
The two companies have purchased a total of BRL903 million (USD550 million) worth of shares.
The parent company bought back 5.7 million ordinary shares of the total 6.2 million shares in circulation, priced at BRL126.25 per share. Meanwhile, Telemig Celular repurchased 78,104 ordinary shares, of the 96,229 in circulation, at BRL2,192 each.

   

Brazil’s Mobile phone circulation reaches 135.3 million at the July - end (Brazil)

  • August 18th, 2008
  • 8:01 am

Mobile phone circulation in Brazil has reached 135.3 million, adding 2.14 million at the end of July, up 1.6% from June, reported by telecommunications regulator Anatel.

   

Oi aims to reach the mark of 21mln subscribers by the year end (Brazil)

  • August 18th, 2008
  • 6:34 am

Oi (Telemar), Brazilian telecoms operator anticipates its total client base to reach 21 million by the end of 2008 said the company’s Chief Executive Officer Jose Luis Salazar. Last year On 31 December, the group’s overall subscriber base, including fixed line, mobile and broadband users, totalled around 16 million according to the statistics.

NII is looking forward for upcoming wireless auction in Brazil-Chief Exec

  • August 15th, 2008
  • 10:49 am

NII (Latin American wireless carrier) says that it it plans to increase investment in third-generation technology and ramp up its Brazilian business in a bid to sustain its recent strong growth in the region. NII Chief Executive Steven Dussek said that the company was looking to take part in upcoming wireless spectrum auctions in Brazil and Mexico in a bid to enter the 3G markets there. The company, which offers post-paid services to business customers under the Nextel banner, has already begun preliminary testing of a 3G network in Peru, the first market where it intends to launch the technology in late 2009. The prospect of offering mobile data services through 3G will double the group’s addressable market. Until now NII has relied exclusively on Motorola’s iDEN technology, Dussek added.

There are strong growth prospects in Brazil and NII last month proclaimed that it was increasing its CAPEX there by USD100 million to increase penetration. Dussek said that ‘We expect to work at increasing market share in Brazil towards 30% and hope to edge closer to that mark over the next three years’. NII also sees revenue growth opportunities in offering data services such as e-mail, internet and music.

Telefonica to test 3D IPTV service in Brazil before Spain

  • August 15th, 2008
  • 10:22 am

According to local reports, Telefónica plans to start testing a 3D IPTV service in São Paulo this year. This test will be done by using a TV supplied by Philips which does not require special glasses to view the 3D image. According to Raúl Ortega del Rio, Director of research branch Telefónica Investigación y Desarrollo, With luck, We will start the tests in Brazil before Spain. This service will be offered in partnership with Brazilian pay-TV operator TVA.

According to the sources two companies plan to launch an IPTV service in Brazil together. Service will be offered to residents of the region of Jardins in São Paulo, as these clients are connected to a fibre optical network which has the transmission capacity to deliver 3D IPTV. This service is only possible with the specially developed Philips television, which currently costs around €18,000 which is the biggest challenge  for the service. Philips believes that the television will be much cheaper in the near future. “Today the technology is aimed more at corporate applications,” said Renato Secco, Director of the company’s Brazilian subsidiary. “Inside three or four years it will be much more accessible to the consumer,” he added.

Telecom Italia lowers group sales target at EUR 30.5 billion (Italy)

  • August 11th, 2008
  • 11:22 am

Telecom Italia, Italy, has sought to lower it’s full year outlook reason being slower sales in Brazil and Germany. TIM Brasil has cut down it’s sales growth outlook to 7%, from its estimate of 9% in May. 

Hansenet, Germany, forecasts annual sales of EUR 1.2 billion, down from an earlier outlook for EUR 1.3 billion.

Telecom Italia puts group sales target now at EUR 30.4-30.5 billion, in contrast to its previous estimate of EUR 31 billion, while the EBITDA margin forecast drops half a point to 38.0 percent.

   

Brazil’s mobile market profile (Brazil)

  • August 8th, 2008
  • 6:06 am

Brazil’s mobile market is the fifth largest in the world, in terms of subscribers. Although Brazil holds almost one third of all the mobile users in Latin America, its mobile penetration is lower than the regional average. Brazil is lagging behind the rest of the region in SMS traffic, with text messages cost more than any other Latin American country. Number portability is to be implemented by March 2009. A 3G-spectrum auction in December 2007 was a huge success, and 2008 has been marked by 3G rollouts throughout the country with almost all operators – except for the market leader, Vivo – offering UMTS services.

A sale of 2.6 million mobile phones took place last month, Brazil reached 133.15 million mobile subscribers at the end of June’08, or 1.99% more than in May’08. The mobile penetration rate currently stands at 69.52 percent.

Brazil’s four major mobile operators, Vivo, TIM, Claro, and Oi, together hold about 91% of the market. Eight Brazilian mobile operators, Vivo, TIM Brasil, Claro, Oi, Brasil Telecom, Sercomtel, Nextel, and CTBC Telecom Celular, are reportedly functioning together to develop and launch IM services nationwide. Under the service the subscribers can exchange messages with users on each other’s network.

Vivo, Brazil’s number one mobile operator by subscribers, posted a net loss of BRL59.5 million (USD38 million) in the three months to end-June, EBITDA rose 16% from BRL756 million to BRL879 million . The subscriber base grew to 40.4 million subscribers, up by 19.4%, 7.7 million are post-paid and the remaining 32.7 pre-paid. Vivo leads with 30.36% market share this June.

Brasil Telecom earned a revenue of US$ 1.75 Billion, up by 2.9% in Q2′08, EBITDA reached US$ 0.70Billion (BRL 1.13 billion), up 16.4% BrT Movel registered 5 million mobile subscribers at the end of the period, up by 33.1% Brasil Telecom’s investments were estimated at US$ 509.8million (BRL 812.4 million), up by 168.5% versus last year, the reason being the 3G license acquisition and implementation of the new network.

Oi shows revenues up by 8.7%. Drop in Net profit, 46.8% to BRL 249 million, Mobile ARPU has improved to BRL 22.0 from BRL 21.3 in the first quarter, while churn increased to 6.8%.