There are 96.6 million celular phones in operation in Brazil. The figure was disclosed yesterday, November 21, by the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) and includes the number of celular telephones operating in the country up to the tenth month of this year. In October alone, another 770,800 new lines went into operation.
Of the total number of celular phones in operation in the country, 78 million are prepaid and 18.5 million are post paid. In the period of 12 months up to October, celular telephony has grown 18.96%. A total of 15.4 million new numbers have been habilitated.
The teledensity of the celular service is also expanding. The index shows that the number of celular telephones per group of 100 inhabitants. In Brazil, this percentage was 51.62% in October, against 51.26% in September.
The leader in the celular telephony market in Brazil is still company Vivo, which belongs to Portugal Telecom and to the Spanish Telefónica, with 29.79%. Then comes TIM, with a market share of 25.23%. Claro, which belongs to the Mexican Telemex group, has 23.26% and Oi, belonging to Telemar, 13.15%.
GSM technology is growing, according to figures supplied by the Anatel. Of the total number of celular phones in operation in the country in October, 61.93% of the total, or 58.7 million, used the GSM service. This information was disclosed by a spokesperson for the Anatel.
Anba