América Móvil and TIM have agreed to share infrastructure for their 3G mobile businesses in Brazil.
Claro, the name used by América Móvil, and TIM Brasil will carry out the agreement in the form of a roaming deal, meaning both companies have access to a potential 116 million customers.
Some parts of Brazil have service from only one of the two competitors, they pointed out. Now both will benefit from wider coverage.
The deal is limited to 3G services only, said TIM and Claro, even though both companies also provide 4G services in Brazil. According to an OpenSignal report in June TIM users can access 4G LTE services 75% of the time. Claro offered speeds up to 28Mbps, said the OpenSignal report.
This implies that the deal is intended to squeeze further revenue out of the companies’ obsolescent 3G technology and to reduce their need to invest more to achieve wider 3G coverage.
Source: https://www.capacitymedia.com/articles/3822194/tim-and-am-rica-m-vil-in-3g-roaming-pact-for-brazil