RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil-Jim Murrell, chairman of the North American GSM Association, could not use his Global System for Mobile communications phone last week in Brazil during Telecom Americas 2000. But depending on a decision by the Brazilian telecommunications regulatory agency later this month, that may change.
By the end of April, Brazil’s Anatel is expected to name the frequency band-either 1800 MHz or 1900 MHz-that will be allocated for new C-band personal communications services licenses set to be auctioned later this year.
The GSM community used Telecom Americas to tout the benefits of allocating the 1800 MHz band and essentially opening what GSM manufacturers and operators consider a previously closed door to Latin America’s most lucrative market.
Brazil currently is home to Time Division Multiple Access and Code Division Multiple Access networks operating in the 800 MHz band. GSM does not have a strong foothold in Latin America, which generally follows North American wireless technology trends.
The GSM community would like to change that, and a spectrum allocation in the 1800 MHz band could be the necessary key.
Brazil’s Minister of Communications Joao Pimenta da Veiga Filho said on the opening day of Americas Telecom, an International Telecommunication Union exhibition and conference, that he predicts the number of Brazilian mobile-phone users to surpass 55 million by 2005, an increase of 50 times the 1 million cellular subscribers in 1995.
Anatel last week released a detailed report outlining the current state of Brazil’s telecom industry and forecasting growth. Mobile penetration is predicted to reach 32.6 percent by 2005.
The debate
At what was scheduled as a Nokia Corp. press conference, a group of GSM operators and vendors touted the benefits to Brazil if Anatel names the 1800 MHz band as the home of the new PCS licenses. Representatives from GSM operators in Canada, Chile, Finland, Italy and the United States cited international roaming capability, a smooth transition to third-generation networks and financial gain to the country overall as reasons to implement the 1800 MHz frequency. Also included on the panel were officials from the UMTS Forum, Siemens AG and Brazilian landline operator Intelig, which plans to bid for a PCS license.
“Roaming revenues will be large, and customers will be satisfied,” predicted Murrell, who also is vice president for business development for Powertel Inc. in the United States.
Chris Wildey, vice chairman of the UMTS Forum, noted that if the 1900 MHz band is chosen for second-generation PCS services in Brazil, it will be out of line with the ITU specification for third-generation frequencies.
“It is very clear that the best path should be to keep the IMT-2000, meaning 1900 MHz, bands clear for 3G services when they’re ready, within the next five years,” Wildey said.
The companies also noted that allocating 1800 MHz would open the market to true competition, allowing all three cellular technologies to exist and compete in one market, similar to what has taken place in the United States.
TDMA and CDMA equipment currently are not available for the 1800 MHz band. Bosco Fernandes, with the UMTS Forum and a Siemens employee, said that is easily overcome by dual- and tri-mode phones.
The CDMA Development Group and Universal Wireless Communications Consortium disagree with those arguments and have lobbied Anatel to allocate the 1900 MHz band. The CDG’s Guillermo Fornaresio said at the show that only the 1900 MHz band would offer competition among all three technologies because allocating the 1800 MHz band would exclude all technologies except GSM.
“We believe the 1.9 GHz frequency allows the deployment of three technologies as in the United States,” he said. “I believe it’s important to give operators the chance to choose.”
He cited the GSM networks currently operating in Chile and Paraguay, both of which are 1900 MHz PCS systems.
Fornaresio also said the technology used in the 1900 MHz band allows migration to 3G services. “[The GSM community] is claiming a contradiction in compatibility between PCS and 3G technologies that doesn’t exist,” he said.
Both sides discussed the possibility of a compromise decision, with a national license allocated for one frequency and regional licenses set in another band, for example.
“Some form of compromise would not be ideal,” said Wildey.
Technical research
Most people involved on both sides of the debate agree that Anatel has solicited a great deal of information and is looking closely at technical details. The agency held a public hearing on the matter in January to gather opinions from the industry.
When asked at the opening press conference if political considerations would factor into Anatel’s decision and specifically if Brazil’s President Fernando Henrique Cardosa would have the final word, Pimenta da Veiga Filho denied that politics would be an issue.
“Anatel has done technical studies, and its decision will be backed by the studies,” he said. “The decision will basically be technical in nature.”
Most industry executives said a decision from Anatel is expected by the end of this week, and some questioned whether the agency should wait until the World Radiocommunication Conference ends in June before making its announcement.
No matter when the decision comes, Brazil’s large market will affect other Latin American wireless licensing. Venezuela, for example, is expected to license PCS networks sometime during the coming year, and a GSM 900 system currently is operational there.
