It has been a competitive battle for the No. 2 position in Brazil’s mobile phone market. While Vivo has maintained its leadership position, the second position has been a long running dispute between Claro and TIM.
What was a slim lead for Claro in June, turned into a TIM victory in July. According to the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), TIM added 1.3 million new users in July, pushing its market share to 25.78% and just edging out Claro’s 25.51% market share. Vivo remained the No. 1 player with 29.53% market share, while Oi was No. 4 at 18.85% market share.
TIM, which had occupied the No. 2 position for ten years until late 2008, attributed its regaining of that position to customer recognition and the company’s strategy of sustainable growth and profitability. TIM highlighted that since current management took over the company in 2009, the carrier has shown consistent progress in its key financial indicators. Net income surged 178% in the second quarter to R$350 million compared to the same period in 2010.
As for the Brazilian market, Anatel noted that carriers added just over 3 million new customers in July, pushing the country’s total customer base to 220.35 million mobile subscribers. GSM technology continues to dominate the market with 85.48% of consumers, with W-CDMA accounting for 10.34% market share and CDMA at 1.06% of the market.
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