YOU ARE AT:AmericasBrazilian carrier Vivo launches PTT and faces Nextel

Brazilian carrier Vivo launches PTT and faces Nextel

Brazilian carrier Vivo has launched its push-to-talk (PTT) service under the name “Vivo Direto.” The service started on July 18 in Rio de Janeiro and one month before in Porto Alegre and Curitiba cities. Although similar to Nextel‘s offering, Vivo’s PTT is based on GSM technology (3G and EDGE) instead of the iDEN standard used by Nextel.

Prior to Vivo’s launch, Nextel was the only PTT player in Brazil. Nextel recently bought frequency bands in order to offer 3G services as early as next year. However, Vivo has already brought 3G connectivity to 1,440 cities and by the end of 2011 it will extend its coverage up to 2,832 cities.

Four mobile phones are available for Vivo PTT at launch: the BlackBerry Curve 9300, Nokia 2710, Alcatel OT900 and LG GU 295. But but the carrier plans to extend this portfolio up to seven other devices shortly.

Vivo counts 63 million customers in 3,663 Brazilian cities.

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ABOUT AUTHOR

Roberta Prescott
Roberta Prescott
Editor, [email protected] Roberta Prescott is responsible for Latin America reporting news and analysis, interviewing key stakeholders. Roberta has worked as an IT and telecommunication journalist since March 2005, when she started as a reporter with InformationWeek Brasil magazine and its website IT Web. In July 2006, Prescott was promoted to be the editor-in-chief, and, beyond the magazine and website, was in charge for all ICT products, such as IT events and CIO awards. In mid-2010, she was promoted to the position of executive editor, with responsibility for all the editorial products and content of IT Mídia. Prescott has worked as a journalist since 1998 and has three journalism prizes. In 2009, she won, along with InformationWeek Brasil team, the press prize 11th Prêmio Imprensa Embratel. In 2008, she won the 7th Unisys Journalism Prize and in 2006 was the editor-in-chief when InformationWeek Brasil won the 20th media award Prêmio Veículos de Comunicação. She graduated in Journalism by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, has done specialization in journalism at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain, 2003) and Master in Journalism at IICS – Universidad de Navarra (Brazil, 2010) and MBA – Executive Education at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.