Contact Center Solutions Industry News

[January 26, 2006]

Telemar nears VoIP launch

(BNamericas.com Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Brazil's largest telecoms operator Telemar intends to launch VoIP services for consumers this month, Telemar's CEO Ronaldo Iabrudi was reported as saying by local news service Agncia Estado.

Initially, the VoIP service will be launched as a pilot with a client base of 20,000 in some areas of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais states.

"This is largely characteristic of fixed line telecoms operators which are offering limited VoIP services to residential customers, with coverage in only a few cities," said Mauro Peres, an analyst at the Brazilian unit of US tech consultancy IDC.

"Calls will be a bit cheaper than normal calls, but without having aggressive discounts," Peres told BNamericas.

Operators such as Telemar will only offer VoIP very aggressively when they see strong competition. This could be in two years when there are a handful of big players with around 60,000-80,000 customers after a shakeout of the small VoIP companies, Peres predicted.

Brazil's telecoms operators saw revenues from international and domestic long distance services shrink 4% in 2005 compared to 2004, according to Peres.

"Telcos stand to lose potentially 30% of voice revenues by 2009, with 60% of the corporate market using VoIP by 2009," said Peres.

The country's third largest fixed line operator Brasil Telecom (NYSE: BTM) (BrT) also launched its consumer VoIP operations this week. The new service, called VoipFone, will be low profile and intends to attract 20,000 residential customers in 2006.

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