is the largest
Telephone Company in
Brazil , considering both lines in service and revenues. It is headquartered in
Rio De Janeiro .
Telemar was formed as Tele Norte Leste to merge sixteen state-owned incumbent local exchange carriers (
ILEC s), during the
Privatization of Brazilian
Telecommunication s system. Each carrier served a particular Brazilian state in the northern, northeastern and southeastern part of the country. In the break-up of
Telebras in 1998 it was sold to a consortium led by the Brazilian construction firm Andrade Gutierrez (21.2%) and Inepar (20%) as well as other Brazilian corporate and individual investors. The consortium paid 3.434 billion reais.
Initially, Telemar was allowed to offer only local voice and data services and interstate long distance voice services. Today, Telemar and its subsidiaries offer local, long distance and international voice and data services, besides a growing mobile phone network.
Currently Telemar has 15.2 million land lines in service, 5.7 million
Wireless costumers (through its subsidiary,
Oi ), 0.4 million
ADSL subscribers, and about 38 thousand employees.
The states that formed the base of Telemar at its inception were
Rio De Janeiro ,
Minas Gerais ,
Espírito Santo ,
Bahia ,
Sergipe ,
Alagoas ,
Pernambuco ,
Paraíba ,
Rio Grande Do Norte ,
Piauí ,
Ceará ,
Maranhão ,
Pará ,
Amazonas ,
Amapá and
Roraima , corresponding to 65% of Brazilian's territory and 20 million households.
Telemar's stock is traded on
Bovespa , where it is part of the
Ibovespa index.
