For Telefonica-Vivo (NYSE: TEF), its participation in Brazil's National Broadband Plan (PNBL) is bearing fruit as the service provider has already signed up 1 million customers.
Designed to provide low-cost broadband services to Brazilian consumers and businesses, Telefonica set a goal under the plan to provide broadband services at capped prices of BRL35 (USD18.95) a month to 622 cities in Sao Paulo by 2013.
As of the beginning of October, Telefonica Brazil joined by other PNBL participants Telemar Norte Leste (Oi), Algar Telecom and Sercomtel have all began offering a 1 Mbps connection for BRL35 (USD18.95) per month in 344 municipalities, with the aim of reaching 544 cities and towns by the end of 2011.
Since the end of September when it had rolled out its service to 229 cities, Telefonica said it had added 300,000 new subscribers, up 43 percent.
Looking forward into 2012, Telefonica-Vivo would like to expand its PNBL coverage to an additional 71 countries. When that process is complete, it would increase its service reach to 300 cities in the Sao Paulo state.
For more:
- TeleGeography has this article
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