AM’s Brazilian unit predicts 10% mobile growth in 2010

Joao Cox, the president of Brazilian cellco Telecom Americas (Claro), a unit of Mexican giant America Movil (AM), is forecasting the local market to grow by 10%, or 20 million new additions, this year. Local press reports quote Cox as saying that the country’s post-paid base is also expected to grow thanks to higher incomes currently being enjoyed by the overall population. Claro closed out 2009 with 44.4 million subscribers, up 14.7% year-on-year from the 38.7 million it had at end-2008. Cox went on to point out that his company had a roughly 25.5% share of the domestic mobile market by the start of this year – a figure it hopes to boost in 2010. Claro is looking to plough ‘most’ of its 2010 CAEX into the expansion of its 3G networks, he added.