Huawei to install 2,000 LTE radio base stations in Brazil by year-end

Chinese telecoms equipment manufacturer Huawei expects to install over 2,000 radio base stations (RBS) for 4G LTE transmissions in Brazil in 2013, according to local press reports. In Brazil, the company provides 4G equipment to nearly all 4G licensees Vivo, TIM (NYSE: TSU), Claro and On Telecom. The only telco to which Huawei is not an LTE supplier is Oi (NYSE: OIBR). Huawei also supplies core 3G equipment to CTBC and Sercomtel and network access equipment to Vivo, TIM, Claro, Oi, CTBC and Sercomtel. Last year, the company claims to have deployed 18,400 worldwide sites for 2G and 3G, up 18% from the 15,600 deployed in 2011. Huawei expects demand to grow with the assignment of new 4G frequency bands. This is the case for the 450 MHz band, for which 3GPP has just standardized the use of LTE technology, and the 700MHz band, which the Brazilian government plans to auction next year. As of April 2013, the company had 175 commercial LTE networks around the world on its portfolio. According to Brazilian daily Valor Econômico, Huawei's expenditures with service providers in South America, which support the company in the deployment of the equipment, increased 14.3% year-on-year in 2012, reaching US$800mn. Huawei's sales in South America reportedly totaled US$2.5bn last year.