Brazilian owned telecoms group Oi, formed through the restructuring of Telemar Participacoes’ former operating divisions Brasil Telecom, Tele Norte Leste Participacoes, Coari Participacoes and Telemar Norte Leste, says it deployed an additional 65 new antennas for 2G and 3G mobile services in May. BNamericas quotes the carrier as saying that it has also increased the capacity of another 303 previously deployed cell sites, while installing more than 53,000 ‘Oi Velox’ nodes to support the offer of broadband services across the country, excepting Sao Paulo state where it is yet to offer it on a commercial basis.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database Oi was the leading player in the domestic fixed broadband segment at 31 March 2013, with a market share of 31.9%, ahead of its closest rival cableco Net Servicos (31.2%) and third-placed Telefonica Brazil (20.6%). Oi plans to invest BRL6 billion (USD2.8 billion) in its networks and services in fiscal 2013 and is forecasting EBITDA of between BRL9.0 billion and BRL9.8 billion for the full year.