Nextel may invest $1.0 bln in Brazil
Wednesday February 18, 2:39 pm Eastern Time
SAO PAULO, Feb 18 (Reuters) - U.S.-based Nextel Communications Inc said Wednesday it may invest up to $1.0 billion in Brazil in the coming years if dispatch and paging services it plans to launch next month prove profitable.
''I can see where we would invest $1.0 billion over the next several years if our product is met with the same degree of success as we've seen in the United States,'' Daniel Akerson, Nextel's chairman and chief executive, told reporters.
On March 15, Nextel, which calls itself the largest mobile business communications services company in the United States, plans to launch digital dispatch, paging and interconnect services in the city of Sao Paulo.
It already operates analog trunking services in the city. It plans to focus future Brazilian investment entirely on digital services, company officials said at a Sao Paulo news conference.
Officials also said Nextel planned to launch digital services in Mexico City and metropolitan Manila in mid-May, Rio de Janeiro in late May, and Lima and Sao Paulo state in the fourth quarter.
In 1999, Nextel plans to expand to the remaining countries of the four-nation Mercosur trade bloc, which comprises Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, the officials said. Bolivia and Chile are Nercosur associates.
Keith Grinstein, president of Nextel International, said Brazil was one of the world's most promising telecommunications markets and that Sao Paulo would lead the company's global expansion. |
