The Brazilian government named João Batista de Rezende to a two-year term as president of Anatel, the country’s telecommunications regulator. Rezende will replace Ronaldo Sardenberg, Anatel’s president since 2009.
Among other challenges, Rezende faces a controversial April auction of 2.5 GHZ spectrum, which will allow 4G deployment in Brazil. Anatel has not spelled out its requirements for bidding; the tender notice for the licenses for the 2.5 GHz band is expected by year’s end.
The bidding is expected to contain three tracks on 20 MHz and one of 10 MHz. Some carriers, such as TIM, aim to use 700 MHz to provide 4G and hope Anatel compromises on that spectrum, which is fraught with technical but political concerns.
At this year’s Futurecom event, TIM’s CEO, Luca Luciani, requested the postponement of the 4G auction, and Oi CEO Francisco Valim said the bid must be in the context of sales of the bands 3.5 GHz and 700 MHz. TIM and Oi want to use the 700 MHz band because its deployment costs are lower than those of the 2.5 GHZ band.
Recently, Anatel approved a restructuring to modernize the process of assessing the quality of the Personal Mobile Service (SMP), which has included indicators for assessing the quality of mobile broadband and the quality perceived by the user.
In addition, Anatel released a reduction in the fixed-mobile telephony prices. The measure could reduce prices by 45% until 2014.
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