Spanish telecom giant Telefonica plans to invest 24.3 billion reais (some $14.7 billion) in Brazil between 2011 and 2014, CEO Cesar Alierta told Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

That amount represents a 52 percent increase over the previous four years, the company said Wednesday in a statement.

The funds will be used to modernize and expand the company's telecom network and launch products and services in the fixed and mobile telephony, mobile and fixed broadband and cable television segments, as well as acquire operating licenses.

Alierta, who was received here Wednesday by Rousseff at the Planalto presidential palace, also announced that a new innovation center will be established in Sao Paulo - Telefonica's first outside Spain - to develop technological solutions for video and fiber-optic platforms.

"We are investing heavily in expanding our services and networks with the aim of covering close to 100 percent of Brazil's municipalities with our telephone and broadband internet, both fixed and mobile," Alierta was quoted as saying in the statement.

Telefonica has invested a total of 57.4 billion reais (some $34.6 billion at the current exchange rate) in Brazil since launching operations there in 1998.

Including projected investment through 2014, that total would climb to 82 billion reais (some $49.4 billion at the current exchange rate).

Telefonica is the fixed-telephony market leader in Sao Paulo state, Brazil's wealthiest and most heavily populated, with close to 12 million customers. The company also has 3.3 million fixed broadband subscribers in that state.

Its mobile phone unit in Brazil, Vivo, is the country's market leader with close to 60 million subscribers, or roughly a 30 percent market share.

Telefonica last year took full control of Vivo by buying out the stake held by then-joint venture partner Portugal Telecom for 7.5 billion euros.

The Spanish company's fixed-telephony unit in Brazil, Telesp, posted net income of 2.4 billion reais (some $1.4 billion) in 2010, an 8.8 percent increase with respect to the previous year.

Vivo's net income came in at a record high of 1.9 billion reais (some $1.1 billion) last year, up 115.7 percent compared to 2009.

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