Gotta do my part to keep the thread alive <g>....
Report from Yankee Group on the Brazilian PCS licenses....the last part is good news for Vesper. If Vesper is allowed limited mobility it has a decent chance to succeed....if not, I dont see much hope.
yankeegroup.com
Brazil Fails to Attract PCS License Bidders, Again
Market Event
Despite early confidence in its ability to auction the remaining PCS licenses, Brazil's regulator Anatel announced on March 5 that it had received no bids for the March 12 auction. The announcement is the last in a series of thwarted Anatel attempts to sell off PCS licenses in the 1,800-MHz band throughout the Brazilian territory, following a series of changes aimed at making the licenses more attractive.
Market Impact
The dissolution of the March 12 auction seriously jeopardizes Anatel's plan to introduce multiple carrier competition into every operating region in Brazil. While the regulator succeeded in selling a national license to TIM and a regional license to Telemar in 2001, the remaining licenses and areas returned by TIM (TIM was forced to sell back geographic portions of the license in the states where it already had cellular operations) leave the competitive map spotted with uneven levels of competition. While most of the country will theoretically have at least three operators in service by the middle of 2002, this reality will fall far short of Anatel's original plan of having at least five competitors in each region. Even if Anatel can repackage the PCS licenses in an attractive way, the actual entrance of new competitors wouldn't occur until well into 2003. By 2003, the market will have already matured to a three-operator level in most of the country (four operators in Region I), making the entrance of a fourth or fifth operator all the more difficult.
Recommendations/Conclusions
Anatel should effectively abandon the effort to sell these licenses and focus on auctioning the licenses to the bidder that presents the best plans for service coverage.
If Anatel is committed to increasing the number of operators in each region, the regulator should strongly consider allowing virtual mobile operators to enter the market rather than force new entrants to build out new networks.
Given that new network investments have been the primary factor in the limited interest in PCS licenses, Anatel could effectively introduce a new mobile competitor throughout the country by allowing the revision of WLL licenses to permit full mobility for additional fees. |
