RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazilian operator Oi became the country’s second wireless carrier to launch LTE services, with initial commercial services beginning today in Rio de Janeiro and further expansion planned for the five cities that will host the FIFA Confederations Cup. By the first half of May, Oi said it will have commercial LTE services in Fortaleza, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Recife and Brasília.
In deploying the LTE network, Oi said it has a radio access network sharing agreement with rival TIM, which James Meaney, Oi’s COO, said will reduce total investment costs by $100 million to a total of $400 million.
Oi’s LTE offer will focus on 3G clients and heavy data users. During a press conference, Meaney admitted that the prices for the services are high, but that “Oi wants to differentiate by packing 4G, 3G, Wi-Fi, fixed broadband services together to leverage more value to the user.”
Although one of the goals of the LTE launch was to meet data demand during the FIFA World Cup and Confederations Cup, Luis Alveirinho, director of engineering at Oi, said that for the Confederation Cup, which starts in June, neither Oi or any other carrier have international roaming deals with foreign telecom operators to operate in the LTE range. “We have for 3G services and for the World Cup we certainly will have these agreements,” he said.
European countries are currently using a mix of 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum bands for LTE coverage, while carriers in the United States are using various bands across the 700 MHz, 850 MHz, 1.7/2.1 GHz, 1.9 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands.
Brazilian carriers that bought spectrum licenses in the 2.5 GHz frequency band at auction last June have until April to cover all the offices of the Confederations Cup, and by December they must also cover the branches and sub-offices of the 2014 World Cup.
Regarding potential expansion into other large markets such as São Paulo, Meaney said that Oi will meet government regulator Anatel requirements, but the carrier was anticipating a launch.
América Móvil’s Brazilian unit Claro, was the first carrier to launch LTE in the country. Claro announced last December the availability of LTE services in the cities of Recife, Campos do Jordão (SP), Paraty and Buzios (RJ). Earlier this month, Claro expanded LTE services to five more cities.
Telefónica’s Vivo is set to announce the launch of LTE services on April 30. TIM has yet to release details about when it plans to roll out LTE services, however according to Anatel’s rules all carriers have until April 30 to deploy LTE networks.
As for vendors, Oi picked Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks. Vivo and Claro have chosen Ericsson and Huawei to supply their LTE networks, while TIM tapped Ericsson, Huawei and NSN as vendors.
Editor’s Note: Oi provided travel costs to attend its press conference in Rio de Janeiro.
