Banco do Brasil to auction telecoms contracts Nov. 20

Brazil's largest bank Banco do Brasil (BB) will auction on November 20 two contracts to manage its telecoms network, postponed from the original date of November 13, a BB spokesperson told BNamericas. BB wants the winners to convert its ATM/frame relay backbone to Internet protocol (IP) technology. It has not revealed a price for the contracts. Nine companies have said they plan to bid, including Telemar, Embratel, Brasil Telecom, Portugal Telecom and AT&T Latin America, news agency Dow Jones reported. Bank officials have previously said they are offering two contracts to avoid over-reliance on one operator. It wants to retain top-level management decisions regarding the network. BB has more than 12,000 points of presence across Brazil's 27 states, including 3,200 branches, and has 17 million customers. Brazil's largest private banks have sold or outsourced most of their network assets in recent years. Portugal Telecom (NYSE: PT) acquired the networks of Unibanco and Bradesco last year, while Itau signed an agreement in June 2001 to transfer operation of its network to Telefonica Data, the corporate communications unit of Spain's Telefonica (NYSE: TEF).