Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has signed a partnership agreement with Flextronics to manufacture LTE equipment locally in Brazil. As RCR Wireless News previously reported, NSN aims to achieve a 35% market share in Brazil. Eduardo Araújo, NSN’s president for the Latin American region, has said that NSN will invest between U.S.$3 million and $5 million for the first stage of local manufacturing.
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Flextronics will be responsible for manufacturing modules for the Flexi Multiradio Base Station—NSN’s radio access solution for 2G, 3G and LTE. The company will also produce LTE solutions for the FDD frequencies acquired by the wireless carriers Claro, Oi, TIM and Vivo at Brazil’s last spectrum auction held in June, as well as TDD frequencies acquired by Quattro and Sky. Manufacturing will be concentrated in Sorocaba in the state of São Paulo, and the products will be available on the market starting in October.
According to Araújo, Brazil’s telecommunications industry is going through an exciting time. The executive said that Brazil was chosen over other Latin American countries for local manufacturing because of its importance in the Hispanic market and its great, potential mobile broadband growth.
Nokia Siemens Networks’ decision to produce in Brazil follows the rules set by the Brazilian telecommunication agency, Anatel, which included national technology percentages for the procurement of goods, products, equipment and systems for telecommunication and data networks in its LTE auction rules. According to the bidding document, the percentage for acquisition of goods and products with national technology will be 60% from 2012 to 2014, 65% from 2015 to 2016, and 70% from 2017 to 2022. The auction rules were released earlier this year.
Nokia Siemens Networks has forecasted that there will be 12 million LTE users in Brazil over the next few years. In February, Wilson Cardoso, NSN’s head of technology for Latin America, told RCR Wireless News that this number is higher than other analysts’ forecasts because the company based its projection on the 4G auction framework.
