CTBC to invest US$1.82mn in broadband content

Brazilian telecom company CTBC plans to invest 5mn reais (US$1.82mn) in interactive broadband services in 2005, the company said in a press release. As a first step, CTBC has agreed to invest 500,000 reais in online game provider Universo Gamer Online (UGO), in exchange for a 20% share in the firm, owned by local IT firm Kaizen. CTBC will provide IT infrastructure for the UGO portal, while Kaizen will concentrate on creating content suitable for "WANhouse" virtual community networks formed mainly by residential users. The UGO portal will also offer e-commerce services for the online game sector. Access to UGO will be part of various packages CTBC plans to offer with its broadband access, dial-up and email services. The service will be available all over Brazil. CTBC has also created an R&D unit to project further interactive broadband and local telephony activities. "This market has fantastic potential and appeals to the age group that most consumes technology," CTBC project coordinator Mauri Seiji Ono was quoted as saying. The electronic game sector billed approximately US$20bn in 2002, according to the press release. CTBC, owned by Brazilian industrial group Algar, provides voice and data transfer services, fixed and mobile telephony and pay TV services to its 1.2 million clients. Its backbone is an 8,500km Optical Ground Wire (OPGW) network. The company operates in the private and corporate client segments in the states of Minas Gerais, Goiás, Mato Grosso and São Paulo, and in some of Brazil's biggest cities like São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Curitiba and Campinas. CTBC's strategy is to operate in cities with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants where the big global players are not present. The company aims to double revenues over the next five years by expanding its services to 947 of Brazil's 5,565 municipalities. Kaizen's business in Brazil is based on its partnership with US software firm EMC, which develops storage and backup systems.