Brazil's leading mobile operator Vivo Participações has approved at a shareholders' meeting capital investments of 1.73bn reais (US$851mn) for this year, Vivo said in a statement to the securities regulator CVM.
Vivo, which is a joint venture between Spain's Telefónica and Portugal Telecom, invested over 2.1bn reais in 2006, with over 50% being directed into deploying a GSM overlay on its CDMA network.
Vivo did not release further details about how it planned to use the investment, so it is difficult to know how the capex will be used, Luciana Leocádio, an analyst at local brokerage Ativa Corretora told BNamericas.
However, Vivo has shown interest in applying for a 1.9GHz license to secure coverage in Minas Gerais state and the northeast of Brazil, Leocádio said.
Vivo has previously estimated that this would require an investment of around 800mn reais, she added.
According to analyst Walter Piecyk of US-based company Pali Research the capex estimate is in line with management comments from their 4Q06 earnings call.
The lower capex for 2007 appears to be an indication that their 1.1bn-real GSM overlay is ahead of schedule and not encountering setbacks, Piecyk said in a research note."
Posted to the site on 17th April 2007
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/23201.php