NEW YORK-Paging Network do Brasil S.A., Sao Paulo, reported earning $3.3 million in net revenues during 1997, its first year of commercial operation.
Net losses for the year totaled $25.4 million, compared with $9.7 million during fiscal 1996.
The new carrier, which has invested in the FLEX protocol, provides paging and wireless messaging services. It offers local service in the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and extended service in Brazil’s eight next largest cities.
PageNet do Brasil posted 47,260 customers as of Dec. 31, up from 25,418 as of Sept. 30. Thomas C. Trynin, chief executive officer, said the paging company believes its customers accounted for 15 percent of new pager sales and 6 percent of the Sao Paulo market during its first year of commercial service.
“We are pleased with our accomplishments of last year, despite a very challenging economic climate since late October,” Trynin said.
“While we are continuing to maintain a conservative outlook for the first half of 1998, we remain very optimistic about the future of paging in Brazil.”
Paging Network do Brasil is a joint venture of Paging Network Inc., E.M. Warburg Pincus & Co. L.L.C., a private equity investment firm based in New York City, and TVA, one of Brazil’s largest cable TV companies.
