RIO DE JANEIRO—Expanding LTE services is among Telefónica Vivo’s goals for the next year. During a lecture at the Futurecom event, Antonio Carlos Valente, president of Telefónica Vivo, said the carrier plans to provide LTE services in 72 cities in Brazil by the end of 2013.
To date, the telecom operator has launched LTE services in 65 cities. Valente didn’t disclose any further information on future launches, such as on which regions the carrier will focus, but he guaranteed that there will be many more cities to come.
Vivo also provides 3G services in 3,131 cities. In addition, the carrier reaches 1.45 million homes with fiber optic connections and operates 2,381 radio base stations.
Among Vivo’s 2014 goals, Valente said the telecom operator is focusing on increasing rural coverage, and continuing 3G and LTE expansion. In addition, Telefónica Vivo is looking to launch applications, such as learning services and machine-to-machine (M2M) services for utilities and fleet management. These goals are part of Telefónica’s broader, global strategy to become a more digital telco.
Following this direction, Valente showed a device that monitors people health. “We are starting to step into the people field,” he noted. He mentioned remote patient health monitoring and management as potential future offerings.
In the field of mobile financial services, Valente noted that after the pilot phase, Vivo will be launching the mobile payment solution, Zuum, in January 2014. Vivo’s m-payment solution was first announced last year.
Related content: Vivo launches first Firefox devices in Brazil; BlackBerry releases new smartphone
