Porto Seguro Conecta becomes country's first MVNO to enter into operation

Initially focused on fleet monitoring, Brazilian insurance company Porto Seguro has launched services as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in Brazil, becoming the first MVNO to operate in the country. Branded as Porto Seguro Conecta, it began installing SIM cards in vehicles from clients and from its own fleet back in June. Porto Seguro is Brazil's largest auto insurer. To date, 2,000 vehicles have received SIM cards for tracking purposes. Porto Seguro's goal is that its entire fleet that is currently being tracked, about 450,000 vehicles, has its chips replaced by SIM cards in two years, the company said in a statement. "Fleet monitoring is the first service from our MVNO available to the market. Basically, Porto Seguro is the first client of Porto Seguro Conecta," Porto Seguro Conecta diretor, Italo Flammia, said. But Porto Seguro aims to launch mobile telephony packages as well. In the next phase of the project, the company plans to offer M2M and mobile services for customers, brokers and employees and projects reaching one million subscribers in five years. The MVNO will also help Porto Seguro slash internal telephony costs. The MVNO is a partnership between technology enabler Datora Telecom - the MVNE - and Porto Seguro, with local telco TIM as MNO and Ericsson as equipment supplier. Porto Seguro Conecta will initially operate only in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, but plans are to expand it countrywide in the near future, as the agreement with TIM entails using its network in all the country's states.