Vivo has chosen Nortel and Motorola to build the CDMA 1x overlay on the TDMA networks of TCO and CRT, which belong to the Portugal Telecom/Telefonica joint venture. Market sources say the choice will be announced in the next few days, together with Vivo?s decision to award Lucent a contract to expand the 1x data layer and CDMA network core in São Paulo (Telesp Celular) and Rio de Janeiro (Tele Sudeste Celular). This hasn?t been confirmed either by Vivo or by the vendors. Motorola, already responsible for Vivo?s network in Santa Catarina and Paraná (Global Telecom), is expected to take charge of overlaying localities covered by CRT in Rio Grande do Sul, while Nortel, which supplied TDMA equipment to TCO?s network, will probably begin with Brasília. The estimated prime cost of the overlays and of expanding the Rio and São Paulo networks is 50 million Brazilian Reals for the first stage.
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