Brazil's leading cellcos hike rates.(Brazil)(Brief Article)

Latin America Telecom, March, 2005

Claro, the Brazilian affiliate of America Movil, will increase rates on March 1, while Vivo, the JV of Telefonica Moviles and Portugal Telecom, made rate adjustments on the last day of February. On the other hand, Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) has no plans to increase its rates for the time being.

Vivo's rates increased on average 5.06 percent, while Claro's average increase was 7 percent. Post-paid customers of Claro were not affected, as the rates for these customers remained as is. The brunt of the increase was for the majority of the sector, prepaid subscribers.