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Vivo Participacoes (VIV) led the Brazilian mobile-phone market with a a 29.8% share of subscriptions in 2008, according to figures released by telecommunication regulator Anatel Wednesday.

Vivo increased its market share from 27.7% in 2007 and has 44.9 million clients. Vivo's higher market share was due mainly to its incorporation of Telemig Operadora in the middle of 2008.

Claro, the local unit of Mexico's America Movil SA (AMX), continued its expansion, consolidating its second position with a 25.7% share, while TIM Participacoes (TSU) was in third place with 24.2%.

The fourth-placed mobile-phone operator in 2008 was Oi and Brasil Telecom, who now form a single group. Oi ended the year with a 16.2% market share with 24.3 million clients. While its new partner, Brasil Telecom, had 3.7% of the market with its 5.6 million clients.

Anatel said Brazil had approximately 150.6 million cellphones at the end of last year.

Vivo is jointly owned by Spain's Telefonica SA (TEF) and Portugal Telecom (PT) and TIM is the local unit of Telecom Italia SpA (TI).

Cellphones sales in Brazil fell 23% in December compared to December 2007, reflecting the global economic crisis. Just 3.6 million units were sold compared to 4.7 million in the year-ago period.

However, annual growth in cellphone sales continued to be robust, rising 29.6 million units, or 24.5%, compared to 2007.

-By John Kolodziejski, Dow Jones Newswires; 55-21-2586-6086; john.kolodiejski@dowjones.com

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