STAMFORD, Conn.-GTE Corp. has announced it intends to get a foothold in the Brazilian cellular phone market through an alliance with a Brazilian investment group and a Brazilian equipment manufacturer.
The trio has its eyes on one of the B-band cellular licenses the Brazilian government is expected to offer this year.
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GTE’s partners are Itatel and Splice do Brazil. Itatel is the telecom subsidiary of the Itamarati Group, a diversified conglomerate with annual revenue of about $1.5 billion. Splice manufactures transmission equipment and is a supplier to the country’s monopoly telephone company, Telecomunicacoes Brasileiras S.A. (Telebras). Splice was started by the Beldi Group in 1971, and reported revenues of $120 million in 1995.
The GTE alliance will be one of a half dozen consortia vying for the Brazilian licenses; other U.S. firms in those consortia include Millicom Inc., Cellular Communications International, Qualcomm Inc., AT&T Corp., BellSouth Corp. and U S West Inc.