Brazilian carrier Vivo has launched its push-to-talk (PTT) service under the name “Vivo Direto.” The service started on July 18 in Rio de Janeiro and one month before in Porto Alegre and Curitiba cities. Although similar to Nextel‘s offering, Vivo’s PTT is based on GSM technology (3G and EDGE) instead of the iDEN standard used by Nextel.
Prior to Vivo’s launch, Nextel was the only PTT player in Brazil. Nextel recently bought frequency bands in order to offer 3G services as early as next year. However, Vivo has already brought 3G connectivity to 1,440 cities and by the end of 2011 it will extend its coverage up to 2,832 cities.
Four mobile phones are available for Vivo PTT at launch: the BlackBerry Curve 9300, Nokia 2710, Alcatel OT900 and LG GU 295. But but the carrier plans to extend this portfolio up to seven other devices shortly.
Vivo counts 63 million customers in 3,663 Brazilian cities.
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