ORLANDO, Fla.-BellSouth Corp. reported the buildout of its Sao Paulo, Brazil, Time Division Multiple Access network is proceeding rapidly. The company is part of a consortium that in July 1997 won the B-band license to serve Sao Paulo City. The consortium paid $2.5 billion for the license and is using equipment from Northern Telecom Ltd.
“What we’ve done in nine months is just an amazing story,” said Keith Radousky, director of engineering for BellSouth Corp.
“Some people say we paid too much for the license. We would rather explain why we paid a bit more than why we didn’t get the license.”
With a low 4-percent mobile penetration in a city four times the size of New York City, Sao Paulo presents tremendous opportunity for growth, he said.
The company launched service May 18-two months ahead of schedule-and signed up 150,000 subscribers in the first eight days. Radousky said. It currently is adding 30,000 subscribers a week and touts about 535,000 total subscribers, with a prediction of more than 1 million by year-end. There are still 550,000 people on a waiting list for service.
Radousky added that BellSouth currently is experiencing a low dropped-call rate in Sao Paulo, despite the fast buildout and customer-acquisition rate. During peak hours, it’s 0.4 percent. This compares with a standard industry goal of a achieving less than 2 percent, he explained.
