BROWSING: Anatel
Brazil chooses GSM for PCS
The GSM community, which has struggled to make inroads in Latin America, was ensured access to an important market as the Brazilian government granted personal communications services licenses in the 1800 MHz band.Last week's decision caught many mobile-phone carriers and infrastructure providers off guard....
Roaming issues force groups to cooperate
They may be working closer these days, but make no mistake about it, the GSM Association, the CDMA Development Group and the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium remain strong competitors.All three associations will convene this week in Las Vegas at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association's...
PCS licenses set to be awarded by October
SAO PAULO, Brazil-Anatel, Brazil's telecommunications regulatory agency, will not divulge the frequency band-either 1.8 GHz or 1.9 GHz-that band C cellular telephony operators will use until after the World Radiocommunication Conference ends in June. Anatel President Renato Guerreiro made the announcement in April just...
Vesper uses WLL to compete with landline operators
SAO PAULO, Brazil-In early January, by starting operations as a "mirror" company of fixed-line carriers Telefonica and Telemar, Vesper faced a challenge in the Brazilian market. The company planned to compete with operators installed in 17 states, with an objective of ending the first...
Anatel inches toward naming C-band specs
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,...
GSM community awaits Brazil spectrum selection
Brazil's spectrum choice in auctioning new personal communications services licenses could be an important decision for the GSM community as it struggles to gain inroads into Latin America.The Brazilian telecom regulatory authority, Anatel, plans to auction new PCS licenses as early as this year,...
ERICSSON TO SUPPLY WLL NETWORK TO BRAZIL’S MIRROR
STOCKHOLM-Anatel, the Brazilian telecom regulatory agency, awarded Mirror S.A. of Brazil and L.M. Ericsson a $200 million wireless access equipment contract for what Ericsson said is the largest planned wireless local loop deployment in Latin America.The cdmaOne (Code Division Multiple Access) network will help...
U.S. DISAPPROVES OF BRAZIL TELECOM EQUIPMENT PRACTICE
SAO PAULO, Brazil-The Telecommunications and Electronics Consortium for Latin America and the U.S. Government both have filed comments with Anatel in Brazil regarding Anatel's proposed rules on equipment purchases by telecom operators.In a letter to Anatel, the U.S Government said, "These proposed requirements that...
ANATEL OKS OWNERSHIP CHANGES
SAO PAULO, Brazil-A little more than one year after auctioning B-band cellular licenses and less than a year after the Telebras privatization, the Brazilian government already is dealing with agreements and acquisitions that will change the country's wireless market profile.The movement started early this...
BRAZIL DELAYS SALE OF MIRROR COMPANIES
SAO PAULO, Brazil-Despite its drive for a competitive and liberalized market, Brazilian regulatory agency Anatel finally succumbed to market pressures and postponed to Jan. 15, the tender of licenses to operate one long-distance and three fixed-line "mirror," or competitive, companies because of the financial...
LATIN AMERICA BRIEFS
Argentina will adopt calling party pays for cellular as of 1 January. Trunking and paging also are expected to adopt the system in an attempt to develop these markets. The paging sector experienced a significant drop in subscribers as a result of competition with...
LOCATION, TIMING JUDGE INVESTMENT RETURNS
WASHINGTON-The old adage maintains it's all about location, that the success of an investment depends on locale. And Latin America has been the locale of choice for investors looking for incredible growth rates and high demand for service. With several countries in the region...
BELLSOUTH WIPES OUT WAITING LIST IN SAO PAULO
SAO PAULO-BellSouth Corp. announced late last week that its BCP S.A. cellular operation in Sao Paulo, Brazil, has wiped out its 1.8 million-person waiting list for cellular service, signing on in fewer than five months a total of 600,000 of those who originally had...
TELEFONICA, PORTUGAL TELECOM NOW MAJOR POWERS IN BRAZIL
WASHINGTON-Almost 500 years after Columbus visited, Portugal and Spain are back on Latin American shores; this time, it isn't sugar cane or gold they are after, but rather the potentially lucrative telecom sector. Telefonica de Espana and Portugal Telecom were the most aggressive bidders...
INTEREST SWITCHES TO BRAZIL’S A-BAND LICENSES
Further developments in the B-band auction for cellular licenses in Brazil continue to be stymied, while the June privatization auction date set for government-owned Telebr