not good for cdma brazil Alcatel To Start Making Cellphones
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - French telecommunications giant Alcatel will
start producing cellphone handsets in Brazil this year, anticipating rocketing
demand as the government auctions off nine new mobile phone licenses, the
company president said Wednesday.
Jonio Foigel told business daily Valor that Alcatel would be investing $15
million to sub-contract cellphone production to an unspecified number of
locally-based companies.
Foigel did not reveal how many cellphones Alcatel would produce, but said
the company would hire another 400 workers, boosting its staff to nearly
2,000.
Alcatel officials confirmed the report but said Foigel was not available Wednesday for comment.
The government's decision to begin adopting the GSM cellphone technology used throughout Europe and Asia
is key in Alcatel's decision. Existing mobile phone licenses in Brazil use CDMA (news - web sites), or Code
Division Multiple Access, and TDMA, or Time Division Multiple Access, technology.
The first three new licenses are slated to be sold this month. The government expects to raise at least $3.4
billion from all nine licenes.
Last year, Alcatel produced 25 million cellphones worldwide, making it Europe's third-largest producer and the
fifth largest worldwide, Foigel said.
According to the government's telecommunications watchdog Anatel, more than 750,000 Brazilians had
cellphones in 1994. Last year, that number grew to 21.5 million and is expected to reach 58 million by 2005.
That means competition in the sector is also growing, primarily from Alcatel's main European rivals Nokia,
Ericsson and Siemens.
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