Rogerio Takayanagi, CEO of TIM Fiber, Brasil, is speaking on Day One of the Broadband LATAM conference taking place on 2-3 July 2013 at the Grand Hyatt, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ahead of the show we speak to him about how Brazil’s broadband infrastructure is developing at a pace and how TIM Brasil is readying itself for the rapid expansion of demand for data in the country.

Brazil’s economy is growing fast, with 40 million people making the transition to the new middle class in the last ten years. But while there is visible wealth in certain areas of big cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro there is still huge poverty, both urban and rural. Against this backdrop, communications services are being deployed to change the lives of millions of people.

The Brazilian government will continue to require that a significant portion of telecoms network equipment is manufactured locally as it seeks to harness the sector’s growth to create jobs and local wealth, according to the country’s minister for communications.

TIM Brasil, after achieving the number two spot in the Brazilian mobile market last August, hit another milestone in April. For the first time, the operator has beaten its competitor Vivo in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo. In April, TIM reported a market share of 31.8 per cent in the code 11 area, which covers Sao Paulo, while Vivo’s share was 30.9 per cent. The achievement is significant, given that the Sao Paulo metropolitan region has about 20 million inhabitants and the country’s highest GDP.

The chief executive officer of Brazilian carrier TIM Participações – part of the Telecom Italia group – has stepped down effective immediately. Luca Luciani will be replaced by TIM’s group chief financial officer Andrea Mangoni in the short term.

Alberto Boaventura is a technology consultant for Oi, Brazil, with a focus on technology strategy and service integration. He is presenting on Day One of the LTE Latin America 2012 conference taking place on the taking place on the 17-18 April 2012 at the Windsor Barra Hotel, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Here he gives his views on FDD and TDD spectrum for LTE, the timelines for VoLTE and the innovations present in the LTE industry.

Brazil has seen its number of broadband subscribers increase 150-fold over the past ten years to reach 15.5 million accesses by the end of 2010, with 19.2 per cent growth last year alone, according to the annual report from the country’s National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel).

Spanish and Latin American carrier Telefonica’s acquisition of Vivo will have a significant impact on the Brazilian market, most notably giving the company the platform it needs to launch convergent services.

Spanish incumbent operator Telefónica is still chasing its Brazilian dream after the European Court of Justice ruled that the Portuguese Government’s use of a so called ‘golden share’ to block Telefónica’s acquisition of Vivo was unlawful.