Brazil Says Mobile Phone Cos Added 11 Million Customers Jan-July

SAO PAULO -(Dow Jones)- Brazilian mobile phone companies added 11 million customers in the first seven months of the year, bringing the total subscriber base to 76.6 million, telecommunications regulator Anatel said Tuesday.

That is up 16.7% from the beginning of the year, according to Anatel. In this nation of 184 million people, there is now one mobile phone for every 2.4 inhabitants, according to the data.

In July alone, mobile phone operators added 1.061 million handsets, Anatel said.

Prepaid plans continued to dominant, accounting for 81.02% of the total market in July, while contract customers accounted for the remainder.

According to Anatel, Vivo, a joint venture of Spain's Telefonica Moviles SA (TEM) and Portugal Telecom (PT), maintained its leadership in market share, with 37.28% in July, down from 37.67% seen in June. Vivo is the only company that uses CDMA technology in Brazil.

The main competitors of Vivo, in the meantime, are GSM operators. The local unit of Telecom Italia Mobile SpA (TIM.IT) maintained its second position with 22.43% of market share, followed by Claro, the local unit of Mexico's America Movil SA (AMX), which had 21.47% of the markets.

-By Rogerio Jelmayer, Dow Jones Newswires; 5511 3145 1480; brazil@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 16th August 2005