Mobile VAS Revenues in Brazil Will Surpass $9.3 Billion by 2013

Published on: 15th September 2008

Signals Telecom Consulting has published a report focusing on the mobile VAS market in Brazil, which highlights the fact that the slowdown in subscriber growth, the need to achieve positive returns on investment and the high mobile teledensity rates, which surpasses the 100% mark in cities like Brasilia and Salvador (Bahia), will trigger increasingly aggressive efforts by mobile operators to market Ring Tones / Music, Adult Content, Mobile TV and wireless broadband access.

"The expansion of UMTS/HSPA coverage and the presence of variety of 3G networks in the most important urban areas of the country will force Brazilian mobile operators to evolve their current data strategy. The present focus on torpedos (SMS) will give way to efforts to strengthen multimedia type VAS and wireless broadband access," comments Jose F. Otero, President of Signals Telecom Consulting and report co-author.

The study points out that prior to the December 2007 IMT-2000 spectrum bidding, 3G deployments in Brazil were limited to the VIVO CDMA2000 EV-DO offering and the limited in-band UMTS/HSPA deployments by Claro. "The increasing number of 3G networks in this marketplace will trigger a more diversified offering. This will allow operators to present their related service offerings as somehow being an alternative that is different from the rest. Operators will be able to achieve this via exclusive content, the marketing of state-of-the-art handsets (such as the iPhone) and the launching of Fixed-Mobile convergent services" adds Otero.

Finally, the study highlights the fact that the strategy of increasing revenues via the acquisition of new clients is becoming an ever more difficult issue for mobile operators. "The aeiou (Unicel) experience in Sģo Paulo shows that the entrance of new players into the marketplace faces numerous entry barriers. On the other hand, plans that include MVNO type operations could help to reduce market entrance costs for companies like Virgin Mobile and Vodafone. In the short term, the only operator seen as being interested in acquiring addition spectrum is Nextel Brasil allowing the operator to have a viable technology migration plan for its iDEN platform," concludes Otero.

Click on images to enlarge

Brazil Subscriber Forecast

 

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