More Brazil IP Communications Stories

Mobile broadband and mobile prepaid services are set to drive huge growth in telecom revenue for Brazil, prompting its government to provide high-speed Internet connections to about 24 percent of the population by 2015, says marketing analysts from Pyramid.

But Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has recently stated that he is confident of connecting 72 percent of all households to broadband by 2014, according to a new research note.

Brazil has now established a new Digital Inclusion Secretariat in the Ministry of Communications in an apparent attempt to accelerate the speed of broadband rollout to the nook and corner of the country.

The Brazilian telecom market generated $67.42bn in service revenue in 2010. Despite the global economic crisis that constricted the market in 2009, telecom in the country is a fast-growing market, and Pyramid Research expects it to grow at 17.6% year-on-year in US dollar terms in 2011.

Pyramid Research believes that the PNBL will boost broadband penetration and be a driver for development in the sector, both in the fixed and mobile sectors.

Mobile voice and mobile data are expected to grow at a different pace. Mobile voice services, despite being highly penetrated in the population (105%), still have room to grow. The revenues on that side are expected to come mostly from new subscriptions.

Mobile data will grow mostly after 2011, when 3G will be largely deployed in the country, allowing mobile operators to compete in equal terms with fixed operators in low-speed/low-cost broadband access, according to the report.

Nevertheless, mobile data services already have an important appeal among customers who need mobility. The recent flood of smartphones and new devices such as tablets in the marketplace supports that trend.

“On the fixed side, we expect broadband growth to offset the decrease on voice revenues in the coming years,” Pyramid added.