Telemar

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Telemar Norte Leste S.A. Tele Norte Leste Participações S.A. Telemar Participações S.A.

Type	Public (NYSE: TNE)(Bovespa:TMAR5 / TNLP3 / TNLP4)
Founded	July/1998
Headquarters	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Key people	Eduardo Falco, CEO and Chairman Marcos Grodetzky, CFO
Products	Telecom
Employees	37,690 (2003)
Slogan	N/A
Website	www.telemar.com.br

Telemar Norte Leste S.A. or Telemar is the largest telephone company in Brazil, considering both lines in service and revenues. It is headquartered in Rio de Janeiro. Telemar, along with TNL PCS S.A, Telemar Internet Ltda. and Companhia AIX Participacoes S.A., are subsidiaries of Tele Norte Leste Participacoes SA (Tele Norte Leste Holding Company, or TNL).^[1]

Telemar was formed as Tele Norte Leste to merge sixteen state-owned incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs), during the privatization of Brazilian telecommunications 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 Holdings(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.

In April 2006, it was announced that Telemar would restructure itself, merging its three holding companies into a single company, to be named either Telemar Participações S.A. or Oi Participações S.A.