Brazilian government to publish 3G bidding rules soon
October 6, 2007
Brazil's telecoms regulator Anatel expects to publish bidding
rules for an auction of 3G spectrum later this month, local press
quoted the watchdog's president Ronaldo Sardenberg as saying.
Anatel published proposals for the bidding rules earlier this year
and in mid-August started studying feedback from sector players.
Anatel's private services director Jarbas Valente hinted on September
26 the regulator's licensing team was very close to delivering a
draft of the 3G bidding rules to the watchdog board.
Due to board members' schedules there will not be a full meeting
until October 9 and the problem is that any board member can ask
for a revision of the document, which would take an extra week,
according to Sardenberg.
Some operators have said they aim to launch 3G services over existing
spectrum and are likely to do so before Anatel auctions the official
3G spectrum, in the 1900MHz and 2100MHz bands.
These operators include Telemig and América Móvil,
which plan to launch the service over the 850MHz spectrum that they
already have.
Claro's 850MHz system is ready and just needs to interconnect with
other networks, but the firm needs to know 3G operating rules spelled
out in the 1900MHz and 2100MHz bidding rules before it can launch,
Claro president Joao Cox was quoted as saying this week. Telemig's
3G network has been ready since August.
In fact, local papers are convinced that Anatel is under pressure
from other operators - Vivo , TIM Brasil and Brasil Telecom - to
prevent Telemig and Claro from launching 3G.
According to Telemig president André Mastrobuono, Anatel
has yet to authorize activation of the transmission towers, despite
having approved other equipment and operating licenses. Anatel has
not given a clear explanation, merely citing "regulatory doubts."
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