BOSTON-Consolidation will continue in the Brazilian mobile operator market as companies position themselves to provide fixed and mobile services, local and long-distance calls, voice and data services, and applications and content, according to a report from the Yankee Group.
“Brazilian market consolidation has not finished. Operators are looking for scalability to remain competitive,” said Luis Minoru, the research firm’s wireless/mobile Latin America senior analyst. “Consequently, we foresee operators becoming national service providers instead of remaining regional operators.”
The Yankee Group expects today’s seven Brazilian operators to shrink to three or four nationwide companies by 2004. As of early 2003, Brazil had 35.2 million mobile subscribers and the largest operator, Vivo, held 48-percent market share, followed by Claro and TIM. Pending deals likely to re-shape the market involve Opportunity Bank and Telecom Italia-owned assets, including Brasil Telecom PCS, Telemig Celular and Amazonia Celular, according to the Yankee Group.
