What is Broadband?
Broadband access is the same as high-speed Internet. It provides much faster and more stable connections. Music and videos download with much higher quality sound and image. Broadband access provides a permanent connection 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with no additional cost for the phone bill, since the line is not busy. The ISP will charge a monthly fee varying with the transmission speed rating for the package selected.
Broadband Internet - the Brazilian Market
There are basically two ways of providing broadband Internet services in Brazil:
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CABLE - Data transmitted by the
pay-TV cable network. This service is offered mainly by NET through its
Vírtua product. The main differential of this technology in relation
to similar ADSL is full duplex with symmetrical speed - (uploading and
downloading at the same speed ) so there is better performance for applications
such as: video chats, online games, instant messages, etc.
ADSL - This is a digital technology that uses one of the many
frequency bands on a phone line for voice transmission, leaving the rest
free for data transmission. This system is basically offered by conventional
or fixed telephony operators.
According to ABTA, in 2003, approximately 62% of residential pay-TV subscribers
in Brazil owned personal computers. Currently the penetration rate of
broadband services in Brazil is still low, particularly in comparison
with the demand for recently seen in countries with more developed economies.
A report published by the site www.telecom.com.br, stated that the market for broadband Internet in Brazil ended the third quarter of 2004 with approximately 1.9 million subscribers and NET's market share was over 8%. NET led the broadband Internet segment among pay-TV companies with more than 50% of subscribers.
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Vírtua Packages
Access to broadband Internet service is offered by
NET Serviços through the Vírtua brand. Vírtua is
one of the main vectors of the Company in its strategy for raising average
monthly revenue per subscriber. When subscribers seek new high quality
and hi-tech services, this will generate attractive revenue for NET. Moreover,
the product is crucial to building subscriber loyalty. Company surveys
found that a subscriber to the two products (pay-TV and Vírtua)
is 70% more likely to remain in the base than a customer subscribing to
the pay-TV service alone.
Vírtua is now available in 12 cities and this market has a potential
of more than 2.3 million homes in the duplex area and Net will announce
the new product in one more city in 2005. Vírtua currently offers
three product types: Residential, Condominium or Business Vírtua.
The table below shows the different packages and their advantages for
subscribers.
[see the campaign featuring the Internet character Janitor Zé on
http://www.maisvirtua.com.br]
- [new Vírtua site : www.virtua.com.br]
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