The number of mobile phones in circulation in Brazil rose 1.62% in August from the month before to reach 164.54 million, as the main players continued the aggressive promotion of new lines, according to figures released late Friday by telecommunications regulator Anatel.

Net additions totaled 2.6 million in August, up from 2.3 million in July.

Vivo Participacoes SA (VIV) maintained market leadership with a 29.38% share of subscriptions in August. Vivo is jointly owned by Spain's Telefonica SA (TEF) and Portugal Telecom SGPS SA (PT).

Claro, the local unit of Mexico's America Movil SA (AMX), was second with a 25.45% share.

TIM Participacoes (TCU) was in third place with 23.83%. TIM is the local unit of Telecom Italia SpA (TI).

Fourth-placed mobile-phone operator Oi (TNE) registered a share of 20.97%.

-By Rogerio Jelmayer, Dow Jones Newswires; 5511-2847-4521; rogerio.jelmayer@dowjones.com