Tag Archives: Brazil

TIM and BMG Partnership for Mobile Banking in Brazil

Finance, Telecoms, , ,

Brazilian based mobile operator TIM Brasil and bank BMG have partnered to launch a mobile service for customers using BMG bank and credit cards. The SIM card will support access to banking services such as credit applications and balance inquiries and provide bonuses for using mobile services.

The service will work with any kind of mobile phone, not just smartphones. The service will be offered for customers of the TIM prepaid plans Infinity Pre and Cost Control. The goal is to distribute 20,000 cards during the first quarter.

The Rise in Mobile Banking

According to a recent report by Juniper Research, over a billion mobile phone users will have made use of their mobile devices for banking purposes by the end of 2017, compared to just over 590 million this year. Whilst the forecast of 1 billion users by 2017 represents over 15% of the mobile subscriber base, it should be acknowledged that around half of all mobile subscribers remain unbanked, with limited access to traditional financial services.

President of Nextel Brazil Leaves with Immediate Effect

Telecoms, , ,

NextelNII Holdings – which operates in Latin America under the Nextel brand – has announced the immediate departure of Sergio Borges Chaia, the President of the Company’s Brazilian subsidiary, Nextel Brazil.

Gokul Hemmady, NII’s chief operating officer, will now spend the majority of his time, along with Claudio Hidalgo, Nextel Brazil’s chief operating officer, and the local leadership team, overseeing the Company’s operations in Brazil until a successor to Mr. Chaia is named.

The company did not explain the reasons for the sudden announcement, although the statement issued by the company hints at a disagreement about the future plans for the company.

“We have decided to move forward in a new direction to ensure Nextel Brazil is able to execute on its goals and deliver results,” said Steve Dussek, NII Holdings’ chief executive officer. “We thank Mr. Chaia for the time devoted to Nextel Brazil during the past several years and wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

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Telefonica to Invest Heavily in Mobile Advertising in Brazil

Telecoms, , , , ,

Telefónica Digital today announced that it will make a multi million euro investment to kick start its access to the mobile advertising market in Brazil. The investment will use the UK model as a blueprint, with a local team put in place to accelerate the deployment of platforms and capabilities to harness the significant opportunity in Brazil.

Within an overall Brazilian ad market of €15 billion, which increased by 11% in 2011, mobile advertising is growing faster than in Western Europe, driven by the rapidly expanding adoption of smartphones.

The creation of a specialist mobile advertising team in Brazil will enable Telefónica and Vivo, its commercial brand, to drive revenues through faster implementation of media products and services. This includes push messaging, display advertising, loyalty products and location-based marketing.

Telefónica is further able to leverage its experience in building the mobile advertising market in Europe where it now has 23m customers opted in to receive tailored marketing communications via mobile.

“Brazil is booming and the advertising market is growing faster than Western Europe”, said Shaun Gregory, Director of Advertising at Telefónica Digital. “We will invest to build and deploy the best platforms, provide real time capabilities and accelerate these plans through acquiring the best people. Brazil is an exciting market for brands and agency groups, and we fully intend to leverage our knowledge and experience in other markets to make Brazil another important piece of the Telefonica global advertising family”

Telefónica Digital will take the learnings from the Brazilian market in developing its capabilities across the region.

Claro, Vivo, Oi and TIM win 4G licences in Brazil

Telecoms, , , , , , , ,

Vivo, Claro, TIM Brasil and Oi have been chosen to provide the 4G mobile internet service in Brazil. The companies submitted bids of BRL 1.05 billion, BRL 630.191 million, BRL 340 million and BRL 330.851 million respectively, winning the spectrum auction held on 12 June by the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel)

Frequencies in the 450 MHz band for rural mobile telephony were auctioned, too, and as there were no bids, the four operators that won the 4G auction will also be required to invest in that segment.

In the 4G auction notice, Anatel did not define what internet speeds operators must offer for the 2.5 GHz band service. For the 450 MHz band, the download speed must be at least 256 Kbps and the upload speed, 128 Kbps. In addition to the national and rural telephony lots, Anatel is also auctioning 268 lots of frequency bands for regional operations, and Sky Brasil won at least ten lots.

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6 Companies Apply for 4G Auction in Brazil

Telecoms, , , ,

Six groups have applied to participate in Brazil’s 4G auction of spectrum in the 2.5GHz band. Regulator Anatel said it received bid proposals from Claro Brasil, TIM Brasil, Oi, Vivo, Sky Brasil and Sunrise Telecomunicacoes.

The opening of the bids is scheduled for 12 June, at Anatel’s headquarters in Brasilia. The winners will be those that offer the highest price for each frequency block. If all lots offered are sold, Anatel expects to raise at least BRL 3.85 billion, based on reserve prices. As for the 450 MHz band, which will serve to expand the coverage of telephone and internet services in rural areas, the winner will be the one offering the lowest price to the consumer. According to the licence requirements, all municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants will have 4G coverage by 31 December 2016.

Turmoil in the SMS Market in Brazil

Telecoms, , , , ,

TIM and Claro filed a complaint against Vivo before the Brazilian regulator ANATEL, arguing that the promotion “Receive More SMS” (in Spanish: Reciba más SMS) created a parallel market for SMS.

The promotion launched by VIVO in 2011 and extended until the end of May 2012 encourages subscribers for every SMS received, the subscriber gets $ 0.0247 USD credit per SMS.

According to Marketing Director at TIM, Roger Solé, “this type of promotion encourages fraudulent use of SMS”.

See the VIVO, TIM and Claro records in Latin Target.

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Brazil has more than 250 million mobile subscribers in March 2012

Telecoms, , , , , , , ,

Brazil ended March 2012 with more than 250.8 million active mobile subscribers, of which 52 million were 3G, representing growth of 10.11 percent from 47.2 million 3G handsets in February 2012.

The mobile phone penetration rate rose to 128 percent. Of the total mobile phones in the country, 205.2 million were prepaid (81.83%) and 45.6 million postpaid (18.17%). The absolute number of new additions (3.2 million) is the largest recorded for the month of March in the last thirteen years and represents an increase of 1.30 percent compared with February 2012, according to statement from the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel).
Maranhao remains the only Brazilian state with less than one mobile phone per capita density (84.4).

Vivo is still the market leader with 74.78 million subscribers (29.81% market share), followed by TIM with 67.2 million subscribers (26.80%), and Claro in third position with 61.59 million subscribers (24.56%). Oi appears in fourth place with 46.69 million active subscribers (18.53%) and was the only one to see its market share shrink in comparison with the previous month. In percentage terms, Claro was the operator with the highest growth.