Suppliers of CDMA 1xRTT overlays for TCO and CRT Celular, wireless networks controlled by Vivo, still haven?t been chosen but according to Francisco Padinha, president of the Portugal Telecom/Telefonica joint venture, negotiations with Ericsson, Lucent, Motorola and Nortel are making rapid progress and contracts should be signed by mid-August.
Installation of overlays in Brasília and Rio Grande do Sul will begin this quarter, he says. Expanding 1xRTT is part of Vivo?s strategy to double revenue from data services in 2003. This segment brought in 111 million Brazilian Reals in 2002.
BREW
To leverage its capabilities in data services, Vivo also plans to implement a BREW platform by the end of the current year. It will offer multimedia services such as game and video downloads as well as location-based services using the gpsOne chip developed by Qualcomm, based on antenna triangulation and global positioning technology.
