Brazil's largest mobile operator Vivo ended March with the biggest single share of the local market at 28.4% compared to 29.1% at end-December 2006 and 28.6% at the end of February this year, according to data from telecoms regulator Anatel.
In second position was Telecom Italia's unit TIM Brasil, which increased its market share slightly to 25.7%, followed by Claro, controlled by Mexican group América Móvil, with 24%.
Local outfit Oi Mobile held on to fourth spot with 13% of the market.
TIM was once again the major contributor in terms of new additions, while Claro also gained market share largely due to aggressive subsidies in the postpaid handset market, according to Felipe Cunha, head of telecoms research at Brascan Equity Research.
According to Anatel, GSM technology currently accounts for 65.6% or 67mn of Brazil's mobile telephony client base, followed by CDMA with 25.3% or 25.8mn and TDMA at 9.1% or 9.3mn. Vivo is the country's only CDMA operator but it is currently deploying a GSM overlay.
OVERALL GROWTH
The number of mobile phone subscribers in Brazil rose to over 102mn at the end of March compared to 101mn at end-February, according to Anatel.
Anatel's data for March showed that net additions slowed to 965,726 lines, above the number in February, which was the smallest increase since 2003.
In the first three months of 2007, the number of new subscribers grew 2.2mn or by 2.2%, the agency reported.
"While growth remains healthy, it shows a 28% decline in net adds over 1Q06," Jose Luis Ramirez Domene, an analyst at German bank Deutsche Bank Equity Research, said in a report."
Posted to the site on 24th April 2007
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