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Brazil counts 27.9 million mobile broadband users

Mobile broadband access is increasing in Brazil. At the end of first half of 2011, Brazil had counted 43.7 million broadband access connections, according to a just-released survey from the Brazilian Telecommunication Association Telebrasil. The major part of this total is registered as mobile users – 27.9 million versus 15.8 million of fixed-broadband connections. The mobile broadband base grew 67% in the period compared to the year before. Modems represent 6.7 million connections and the number of 3G cellphones in use totaled 21.3 million.

From January to June, 8.5 million new connections were added, both mobile and fixed connections.  Compared to the last 12 months, the number of broadband clients had an increase of 49%, which means that 15.5 million new broadband users were added.

Telebrasil also pointed that while broadband access is expanding, dial-up connectivity is decreasing. Almost 40% of households have at least a 1 Mbps connection. In 2009, only that number stood at 22%. Telebrasil said 15% of households have 2 Mbps connection today versus 7% in 2009.

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ABOUT AUTHOR

Roberta Prescott
Roberta Prescott
Editor, Americasrprescott@rcrwireless.com Roberta Prescott is responsible for Latin America reporting news and analysis, interviewing key stakeholders. Roberta has worked as an IT and telecommunication journalist since March 2005, when she started as a reporter with InformationWeek Brasil magazine and its website IT Web. In July 2006, Prescott was promoted to be the editor-in-chief, and, beyond the magazine and website, was in charge for all ICT products, such as IT events and CIO awards. In mid-2010, she was promoted to the position of executive editor, with responsibility for all the editorial products and content of IT Mídia. Prescott has worked as a journalist since 1998 and has three journalism prizes. In 2009, she won, along with InformationWeek Brasil team, the press prize 11th Prêmio Imprensa Embratel. In 2008, she won the 7th Unisys Journalism Prize and in 2006 was the editor-in-chief when InformationWeek Brasil won the 20th media award Prêmio Veículos de Comunicação. She graduated in Journalism by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, has done specialization in journalism at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain, 2003) and Master in Journalism at IICS – Universidad de Navarra (Brazil, 2010) and MBA – Executive Education at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.